Hello,
I have a Dell Power Edge 2650 with the recent kernel patches my
system is showing a higher load. This system is a brand new install and I have
nothing running on it other then OS, hardware drivers and recomened security
patches.
The following is the hardware configuration:
Bios Version A15 on server
Dual 2.4Ghz P4 Processors
2GB's memory
Dell PERC3/QC Raid Card (OEM LSI/AMI Enterprise 1600 w/Firmware 1.92)
3 x 36GB Drives (Raid 1 w/Hot Spare)
Software configuration is:
Solaris 8 from 2/02 Media Kit
AMI 2.17-12 Drivers for PERC3 (I know their are later drivers but 2.18 and
2.19 are not stable on Dell's OEM cards)
Broadcom 7.0.3 Ethernet Drivers (I've also tried 2.11.1 drivers from Dell's
OEM site, same results)
With different kernel patches the amount of CPU time and load average goes up
even though the system is idle (29 sleeping processes, 1 on CPU, that being
top). Here is what I am getting on average:
108529-13 (Which comes on 2/02 media kit):
Load Average: 0.00-0.01
CPU's: 100% idle
108529-18:
Load Average: 0.06-0.10
CPU's: 92%-96% idle
Kernel: 4%-8%
user/iowait: 0%
108529-19:
Load Average: 0.10-0.15
CPU's: 90%-95% idle
Kernel: 5%-10%
user/iowait: 0%
108529-23 (Latest from SunSolve):
Load average: 0.18-0.21
CPU's: 87%-93% idle
Kernel: 13%-7%
user/iowait: 0%
I do not have -20, -21, -22 but I expect that load and kernel to keep on the
same trend. I have a PE2450 and 2550 (Both PIII based with perc2/dc in 2450
and perc3/dc in 2550) running at -19 without issue (When systems are
slow/quite 100% idle CPU's). My question's are:
1) Has anyone else seen anything simular on a P4 box of anytype under
Solaris 8, or if you have a PE2650 do you get the same results?
2) Can anyone recomend any additional tools so I can figure out what exactly
the kernel is doing that it is eating up 7-13% of my CPU's when nothing is
running on the box.
3) Can anyone recomend some performance testing tools so I can run them on
each of the kernel levels and compare the results to see if this is actually
going to be a problem or not.
Thanks,
-Brad Viviano
