Re: cpu average load

  • From: Janine Sisk <janine@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 10:57:42 -0500

FWIW, I do think there is some value in measuring things like CPU load. 
  We host database-backed websites, and often our first and most 
reliable indicator that something is wrong with a site is the load on 
the system going way up.  By the time the site's users complain to the 
site owner, and they complain to us, the problem has usually been going 
on for hours.  Since these situations are usually caused by someone 
trying to download all the content on the site, by the time we know 
about it and can stop it a significant amount of content has already 
been "slurped", lots of users have been annoyed, and sometimes our 
client ends up with a big bandwidth bill.  Another common cause is that 
some of our clients do their own programming and they can write some 
real whopper queries at times;  again, by the time the complaints reach 
us the problem has usually been ongoing for some time.  We are able to 
deal with these situations as quickly as possible by keeping an eye on 
the CPU load and investigating whenever it rises alarmingly.

Of course, the first step of this is to figure out what a normal CPU 
load is for each server.  I think the only way you can really do that 
is to keep an eye on it for a while when things are running normally, 
and establish a baseline.  It does not really matter what the number 
is, as long as things are humming along and everyone using the system 
is happy with it's performance.

I think my situation is a bit different than most of you;  my users are 
not in-house, and my Oracle instances are, indirectly through the web 
sites, hanging out there for anyone to poke at.  So my experience may 
not apply to the rest of you, and maybe not even to Paula's situation, 
but I offer it anyway as one more perspective on the question.

janine

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