Load avg graph - why stacked?

z0s0 · Post by **z0s0** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:04 am

Just a question about the standard UNIX load average graph - I don't understand why it stacks the 1, 5 and 15 minute averages on top of eachother.

Perhaps I'm simply understanding the nature of what "load average" actually is?

Seeing as we're working in 5 minute intervals - shouldn't we only use the 5 minute load average figure and graph that?

By stacking multiple observations of the same thing on top of eachother, it seems that we are making the y-axis reading meaningless.

Post by **gandalf** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:12 pm

So change the "STACK"ed items to e.g. LINE1 and you're done
Reinhard

z0s0 · Post by **z0s0** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:26 pm

yeah I understand how to change it - I'm actually just curious about why this is the case. It's perfectly possible that I've misunderstood what "load average" really means.

Can anyone tell me?

frazer · Post by **frazer** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:36 pm

The load you see is of the system of the last minute, 5 minutes and 15minutes (average).

I understand your point why the 1 and 15 minutes are graphed when you only meassure every 5 minutes, so you don't have to see the average history because you allready have it in your graph

conclusion...leave the 1 minute and 15minute average...and only fill the rrd file with the 5min average..so the graph realy has a meaning.

But i think the colors with the 1 , 5 and 15 are very nice to show your manager that your system is working to hard and needs to be upgraded

Post by **rony** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:36 pm

Honestly I agree, I think it's just like that to be "pretty".

z0s0 · Post by **z0s0** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:18 pm

ahh Ok then. That's what I suspected.

thanks

Cacti

Load avg graph - why stacked?

Load avg graph - why stacked?

Who is online