Extreme high load average is shown but actual load is low

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Issue

  • sar shows the following strange load average, CPU usage is low.

    00:00:01      runq-sz  plist-sz   ldavg-1   ldavg-5  ldavg-15   blocked
    00:10:01            8      5205      4.73  41475.94 2099919.40         0
    00:20:01            2      5178      4.60   5567.83 1100355.00         0
    00:30:01            3      5181      3.45    749.94 576585.05         0
    00:40:01            5      5206      4.14    104.00 302130.97         1
    00:50:01            3      5233      4.50     18.62 158318.51         0
    01:00:01            6      5190 470763.00 18999430.29 15157625.34         0
    01:10:01            5      5193     24.39 2548489.10 7942559.38         0
    01:20:01            3      5192      3.25 341843.95 4161882.60         0
    01:30:01            6      5179      2.52  45855.57 2180817.35         0
    01:40:01            3      5168      3.35   6154.11 1142744.68         0
    01:50:01            3      5166      3.38    828.36 598796.89         0
    02:00:01           21      5183      3.48    114.14 313769.75         1
    02:10:01           10      5171      3.14     18.60 164416.59         0
    02:20:01            2      5166 2499079.78 26555240.08 16875205.23         0
    02:30:01            2      5173    114.96 3561986.51 8842566.82         0
    02:40:01            3      5168      3.88 477789.99 4633484.62         0
    02:50:01            4      5181      4.88  64092.15 2427936.29         0
    03:00:01           18      5203      3.88   8600.09 1272234.16         1
    03:10:01            7      5179      4.11   1157.73 666649.93         0
    03:20:01           18      5187      5.63    160.26 349325.57         0
    03:30:01            3      5180      5.84     26.21 183048.20         0
    03:40:01            8      5187 4567393.00 11598615.59 21260021.08         0
    
  • top also shows the similar load average.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • 3rd party kernel modules
  • kernel.threads-max and kernel.pid_max < ldavg-*

Subscriber exclusive content

A Red Hat subscription provides unlimited access to our knowledgebase, tools, and much more.

Current Customers and Partners

Log in for full access

Log In

New to Red Hat?

Learn more about Red Hat subscriptions

Using a Red Hat product through a public cloud?

How to access this content