How to diagnose high loads with the "uptime" command – cPanel

If you're experiencing slowness, a quick way to see if you're experiencing high load is using the uptime command. Here is an example:

# uptime

20:20:24 up 19 days, 5:04, 1 user, load average: 1.03, 2.04, 4.05

The averages are:

1.03 (103%) - Average load over the last minute

2.04 (204%)- Average load over the last 5 minutes

4.05 (405%) - Average load over the last 15 minutes

1 cpu core is equivilent to 100% usage.

To understand these load averages, you will need to know how many CPU cores you have. You can find that with the command:

# grep processor /proc/cpuinfo -c

With the command output, we can see two cores, so anything over 200% would be considered a high load average.

To track the processes using the high load, you can use the ps or top command. We have articles that explain how to do that here:

For additional assistance, you will want to contact your System Administrator or hire a qualified System Administrator.

You can find qualified System Administrators for hire on our website here:

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