Why is there a delay between two consecutive "ls" commands?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • We're encountering recently anomalies as there is a delay between we press "enter" and execution of the command in the command line.

Second time, delay is 22seconds

[root@server1 sa]# time ls
sa01  sa02  sa30  sa31  sar01  sar30  sar31

real    0m0.001s
user    0m0.001s
sys     0m0.000s

[root@server1 sa]#
[root@server1 sa]#
[root@server1 sa]# time ls
sa01  sa02  sa30  sa31  sar01  sar30  sar31

real    0m22.319s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.001s

[root@server1 sa]#
[root@server1 sa]#
[root@server1 sa]# time ls
sa01  sa02  sa30  sa31  sar01  sar30  sar31

real    0m1.857s
user    0m0.001s
sys     0m0.001s
[root@server1 sa]#
[root@server1 sa]#
  • The load average is a little bit unstable, right now it is:
[root@server1 ~]# uptime
 16:41:56 up 3 days, 58 min,  3 users,  load average: 6.30, 4.92, 4.32
  • The IO wait according to say is at least 39%

  • Machine was rebooted last friday around 15 (31/aug/2013)

  • It's a virtual vmware machine.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

  • EMC SAN

Subscriber exclusive content

A Red Hat subscription provides unlimited access to our knowledgebase of over 48,000 articles and solutions.

Current Customers and Partners

Log in for full access

Log In
Close

Welcome! Check out the Getting Started with Red Hat page for quick tours and guides for common tasks.