Hi all,
Selden E Ball, Jnr requested that I make my summary a bit more clear and
to include my system configuration. This relates to my last post that
was titled "In Conclusion"
Basically my original question centered around performance issues on our
AlphaServer 2100 4/200, 768meg RAM, 16.8gig disk (2 CPU's), 3.2A. We would get
to 200 users and the load would skyrocket to ~30. More investigation
via this list showed the system was doing a huge number of context switches
and spending >80% in kernel time (causing the large load as very little time
was being devoted to actual user processes). Some suggestions I had seen
indicated that this configuration should have been able to deal with 500
users running "standard programs" - our machine is a machine used by students
for email, newsreaders, web access, and so on.
Anyway after sucking the brains of several members of this list dry I
submitted the condition to DEC as a possible fault: I could find no
problem with VM (it was not swapping), nor was there any hardware
errors, or anything in any logs that seemed to help. I went from cover
to cover of the tuning system performance book and ran the suggested
tests, and they all pointed to simple CPU saturation.
DEC examined the machine and after some time agreed that it was CPU
bound with no obvious problems other than the saturation of the CPU's.
I hope this clarifies my post for readers.
-richard
--
Richard A. Muirden, Sys. Admin |Fan of Shostakovich, "Star Trek" and BOEING!
Mailto: richard_at_rmit.EDU.AU |Fly the Friendly Skies of United Airlines !
Phone: (+61 3) 9660 3814 |I created alt.fan.shostakovich! Fly: UA,AN,WN
http://www.rmit.edu.au/richard |Can *YOU* beat my 117 Shost CD's? :-)
Jolt Cola Can Tower Counter: **50** cans
* 1995: Remembering 20 years since the death of Shostakovich (1906-75) *
Received on Wed Sep 06 1995 - 15:55:17 NZST