[Tfug] Unusually high loadavg in new kernel?`

[Felix Tilley]

>
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:32:46 -0700
> From: "Bowie J. Poag" <bpoag at comcast.net>
> Subject: [Tfug] Unusually high loadavg in new kernel?`
> To: Tucson Free Unix Group <tfug at tfug.org>
> Message-ID: <476B09AE.1030007 at comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>
> We spotted something kind of unusual at work today -- One of our boxes 
> (a CentOS/RHEL box thats kept very up to date) has begun showing that it 
> has a loadaverage of about 50. This, mind you, is with nothing running. 
> Nothing gated, nothing thrashing. Literally, nothing. Totally idle.
>
> Has anybody seen this sort of phenomenon before? It's not hurting 
> anything, but it still strikes me as very curious -- I'm scratching my 
> chin thinking it might be due to the recent change in the process 
> scheduler in the Linux kernel.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
>
> Cheers,
> Bowie

What does free say about RAM and swap usage when this happens?

BTW:  which new kernel?

Felix