How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
Menu
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report
17 November 2022 by Luke Reynolds
Obtaining the load average of your server(s) will shed some light on the systemʼs CPU
usage over time. As a Linux system administrator, it is essential to obtain the load
average occasionally, as to determine whether or not your systems are overwhelmed
by trying to handle the current work load. Because of the way load averages are
reported, it is also easy to determine if the server is being overloaded, which may
mean it is time to divide up the work load across load balancing servers, or upgrade
your current hardware.
In this tutorial, we will look at some common command line tools that can be used
to report on the load average of a Linux system. top and uptime are two of the
most popular that come to mind for most administrators, but other tools like vmstat
also allow us to track load average over longer periods of time. We will go over these
various commands and tools below.
In this tutorial you will learn:
• How to use top, htop, uptime, and vmstat commands
• How to see load average for past 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 15 minutes
• How to see load average since last system reboot
1 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
How to obtain Linuxʼs system load average report
So�ware Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or So�ware Version Used
System Any Linux distro
So�ware top, htop, uptime, vmstat
Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo
Other
command.
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root
privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
Conventions
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-
privileged user
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report
There are a lot of command line and GUI tools that can report the load average on
2 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
Linux. We have covered some of the most useful methods below. Depending on your
scenario, one tool may work better than another. Check out the examples below and
employ the tools you �nd most useful for monitoring the load on your servers.
top command
The top command gives us a live view of the systemʼs load average in addition to
services running on the system, the amount of system resources each of those
services are using, as well as a summary of the systemʼs CPU utilization, among other
information.
The top command output shows load information and other relevant stats
There are three numbers given for the load average. The numbers are the average
load over 1, 5, and 15 minutes, respectively. Think of these numbers as percentages –
a load of 0.2 means 20%, and a load of 1.00 means 100%.
That should be easy enough to understand, but you may also see load averages
greater than 1.00. This is because load average is not a direct measurement of CPU
usage, but how much “work” (load) your system is trying to process. For example, a
3 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
value of 2.50 means that the current load is 250%, and also indicates that the system
is overloaded by a whopping 150%.
uptime command
The uptime outputs the system load over the last 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 15
minutes at a quick glance. It also outputs some other handy data – the amount of
time since last reboot, the current time, and how many users are logged in.
The uptime command output shows load information and how long since last system reboot
vmstat
The vmstat command also shows CPU load averags, but unlike the previous
commands, it shows load averages since the last server reboot.
$ vmstat
4 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
vmstat shows a breakdown of load averages since the last system reboot
vmstat also accepts arguments:
$ vmstat 10 3
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
0 0 0 187528 177472 855836 0 0 12 78 2 0 7 2 83 1
0 0 0 203996 177532 855848 0 0 0 107 126 208 4 2 89 1
0 0 0 194108 177540 855856 0 0 0 3 102 166 2 1 96 0
The above vmstat command produced 3 reports with 10 seconds delay. Please note
that the �rst line always contains values for entire server uptime.
htop
Another tool worth mentioning would be htop , as many system administrators
prefer it over top since it produces a more discernable looking output that is also
easy on the eyes. It, too, contains load averages for the system over the past 1
5 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
minute, 5 minutes, and 15 minutes:
$ htop
The htop command output shows load information and other relevant stats
You can use the appropriate command below to install htop with your systemʼs
package manager.
To install htop on Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Mint:
$ sudo apt install htop
To install htop on Fedora, CentOS, AlmaLinux, and Red Hat:
$ sudo dnf install htop
6 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
To install htop on Arch Linux and Manjaro:
$ sudo pacman -S htop
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to obtain the load averages on a Linux system. There are
a variety of tools that can do the job, including top , htop , uptime , vmstat , and a
slew of others. Remember that load averages can also exceed 100%, indicating that
your CPU is overloaded with the tasks in queue.
Related Linux Tutorials:
• How to upgrade Ubuntu from 22.04 to 22.10
• How To Upgrade Ubuntu To 22.04 LTS Jammy Jelly�sh
• How to obtain CPU information on Linux
• How To Upgrade Ubuntu To 21.04
• How to stress test your CPU on Linux
• Linux Con�guration �les: Top 30 most important
• Ubuntu 20.04 Guide
• Ubuntu 20.04 System Monitoring with Conky widgets
• Bash script to monitor CPU and Memory usage on Linux
• apt update vs apt upgrade
System Administration
administration, bash, commands, server
Install Master PDF editor on Ubuntu
7 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
Forgot ubuntu server password?
Comments and Discussions
Start Discussion 0 replies
NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to Linux Career Newsletter to receive latest news, jobs, career advice and featured
con�guration tutorials.
SUBSCRIBE
WRITE FOR US
LinuxCon�g is looking for a technical writer(s) geared towards GNU/Linux and FLOSS
technologies. Your articles will feature various GNU/Linux con�guration tutorials and FLOSS
technologies used in combination with GNU/Linux operating system.
When writing your articles you will be expected to be able to keep up with a technological
advancement regarding the above mentioned technical area of expertise. You will work
independently and be able to produce at minimum 2 technical articles a month.
APPLY NOW
TAGS
8 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
18.04 administration apache applications backup bash beginner browser
centos centos8 commands database debian desktop development docker error
fedora �lesystem �rewall gaming gnome Hardware installation java kali manjaro
multimedia networking nvidia programming python redhat rhel8 scripting
security server ssh storage terminal ubuntu ubuntu 20.04 virtualization webapp
webserver
ABOUT US
FEATURED TUTORIALS
VIM tutorial for beginners
How to install the NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux
Bash Scripting Tutorial for Beginners
How to check CentOS version
How to �nd my IP address on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux
Ubuntu 20.04 Remote Desktop Access from Windows 10
Howto mount USB drive in Linux
How to install missing ifcon�g command on Debian Linux
AMD Radeon Ubuntu 20.04 Driver Installation
Ubuntu Static IP con�guration
How to use bash array in a shell script
Linux IP forwarding – How to Disable/Enable
How to install Tweak Tool on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa Linux
How to enable/disable �rewall on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux
Netplan static IP on Ubuntu con�guration
9 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
How to change from default to alternative Python version on Debian Linux
Set Kali root password and enable root login
How to Install Adobe Acrobat Reader on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux
How to install the NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux
How to check NVIDIA driver version on your Linux system
Nvidia RTX 3080 Ethereum Hashrate and Mining Overclock settings on HiveOS Linux
LATEST TUTORIALS
Introduction to Vagrant
Check CPU and RAM usage of a Kubernetes pod
Kubernetes vs Docker, whatʼs the di�erence?
Install and Use MicroK8s on Ubuntu
How to Create and Manage a Pod in Kubernetes
How to Create, Manage, and Expose a Service in Kubernetes
Control CPU and RAM usage in Kubernetes
How to Setup Minikube for Kubernetes
Choosing a Kubernetes Networking Addon
What is Kubernetes used for?
How to create a cron job in Kubernetes
kubeadm vs minikube, pros and cons
How to Create a Kubernetes Cluster
How to use helm package manager for Kubernetes
How to deploy WordPress on a Kubernetes cluster
kubectl command examples (cheat sheet)
How to manage and troubleshoot Kubernetes logs
How to Install Kubernetes on All Linux Distros
How to Manage Kubernetes Clusters With kubectl
How to Deploy an Application in Kubernetes
10 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report - Lin... https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-obtain-linux-s-system-loa...
© 2023 TOSID Group Pty Ltd - LinuxCon�g.org
11 of 11 4/7/23, 12:33 PM