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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Hi<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Bit of advice needed. Every so often, a few times a day, the load average of one of my BO servers goes up to say 65. Needless to say, nothing much can be done until it comes back down. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>I ran this command (found on a different forum) when it started to go wrong this morning: top -b -n 1 | awk '{if (NR <=7) print; else if ($8 == "D") {print; count++} } END {print "Total status D (I/O wait probably): "count}' > topsave.txt<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>This was the output:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>top - 08:36:18 up 1 day, 22:39, 3 users, load average: 21.75, 13.19, 5.98<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Tasks: 275 total, 2 running, 272 sleeping, 1 stopped, 0 zombie<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Cpu(s): 0.3%us, 0.1%sy, 0.0%ni, 95.0%id, 4.6%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Mem: 16325480k total, 6542392k used, 9783088k free, 375556k buffers<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Swap: 4194300k total, 0k used, 4194300k free, 5325764k cached<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>56942 enquirie 20 0 19712 2720 1780 D 1.9 0.0 0:04.96 imap<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> 918 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:17.69 flush-253:4<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> 950 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:24.13 kjournald<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> 952 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:06.24 kjournald<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>56995 root 20 0 91072 6332 2104 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57002 root 20 0 91072 6320 2100 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57228 root 20 0 91072 6320 2100 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57241 root 20 0 90272 5588 2124 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57248 root 20 0 90940 5344 1280 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57268 root 20 0 88000 3560 456 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57271 root 20 0 91072 6248 2044 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57286 root 20 0 91072 6244 2044 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57298 root 20 0 90480 6376 2816 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57300 root 20 0 91072 6248 2044 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57418 enquirie 20 0 19000 2092 1728 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 imap<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57420 enquirie 20 0 19024 2204 1748 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 imap<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57424 root 20 0 91272 6500 2056 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57469 root 20 0 86820 2360 632 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>57470 root 20 0 86820 2188 452 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Total status D (I/O wait probably): 19<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>As I saw loads of sendmail processes, I thought I would stop the service and see what happened. The load average continued to climb until it just hung again and was unable to do anything. Strangely it does seem to happen at the same time each morning and the problem has been happening for about a week.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Can anyone advise on how I can get to the bottom of what’s causing the problem? I have just run another top command once access came back and got this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Here is one more when it escalated even higher:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>top - 08:55:01 up 1 day, 22:57, 3 users, load average: 44.97, 30.92, 20.79<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Tasks: 318 total, 2 running, 313 sleeping, 2 stopped, 1 zombie<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Cpu(s): 0.3%us, 0.1%sy, 0.0%ni, 94.4%id, 5.2%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Mem: 16325480k total, 6617764k used, 9707716k free, 375800k buffers<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Swap: 4194300k total, 0k used, 4194300k free, 5322732k cached<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> 918 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:18.30 flush-253:4<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> 950 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:26.66 kjournald<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'> 952 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:06.26 kjournald<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>7981 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.67 flush-253:3<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>55156 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 flush-253:0<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58150 root 20 0 105m 4044 3112 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58152 root 20 0 105m 4040 3108 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58168 root 20 0 105m 4040 3112 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58208 enquirie 20 0 20288 2912 2032 D 0.0 0.0 0:02.31 imap<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58225 enquirie 20 0 19180 2412 1852 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.06 imap<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58261 root 20 0 162m 83m 1328 D 0.0 0.5 0:00.00 cced<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58274 root 20 0 91072 6324 2104 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58276 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58278 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58280 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58281 root 20 0 91072 6316 2104 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58283 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58284 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58287 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58290 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58294 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58297 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58298 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58300 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58303 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58307 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58311 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58312 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58313 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58314 root 20 0 91072 6316 2096 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58315 root 20 0 91072 6324 2104 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.15 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58318 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58320 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58321 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58323 root 20 0 91272 6544 2084 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58324 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58327 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58331 root 20 0 102m 3808 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58332 root 20 0 102m 3808 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58333 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58335 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58337 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58339 root 20 0 102m 3816 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58340 despatch 20 0 8828 924 804 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 procmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58341 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58343 root 20 0 91072 6236 2044 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58344 root 20 0 102m 3812 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58347 root 20 0 102m 3808 2948 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 auth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58348 root 20 0 91272 6488 2048 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58350 les 20 0 11548 3752 812 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 procmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>58351 root 20 0 91228 5564 1240 D 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sendmail<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Looking at it at the moment. It has 99.8%wa. Just rebooted it as it has been in this state for almost an hour.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>BlueOnyx 5208R<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>HyperV 2012 R2<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>4 CPU’s (Upgraded from 1 to try and resolve issue)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>16GB Ram<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'>Richard<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>