High CPU system usage

[Ugo Bellavance]

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Hi everyone,

	During a period of high load, a server shows a lot of system CPU time
in use.  We got a big backlog during this period.  Here is an excerpt of
the sar report for this period.  Any ideas welcome... this is kernel 2.4
from Whitebox linux 3.  Please ask if you need more details.

09:20:00 AM       all     77.69      0.00     15.58      1.03      5.70
09:20:00 AM         0     77.48      0.00     15.87      0.99      5.66
09:20:00 AM         1     77.90      0.00     15.29      1.07      5.74
09:30:00 AM       all     74.27      0.00     14.41      1.02     10.30
09:30:00 AM         0     74.38      0.00     14.81      1.01      9.81
09:30:00 AM         1     74.17      0.00     14.00      1.04     10.79
09:40:01 AM       all     74.15      0.00     13.85      0.98     11.01
09:40:01 AM         0     73.84      0.00     13.93      1.02     11.21
09:40:01 AM         1     74.46      0.00     13.78      0.95     10.81
09:50:01 AM       all     77.80      0.00     14.66      1.12      6.41
09:50:01 AM         0     77.83      0.00     14.81      1.06      6.29
09:50:01 AM         1     77.77      0.00     14.51      1.18      6.53
10:00:00 AM       all     79.11      0.00     17.06      0.94      2.89
10:00:00 AM         0     78.97      0.00     17.14      1.02      2.88
10:00:00 AM         1     79.25      0.00     16.98      0.86      2.91
10:10:01 AM       all     80.71      0.00     15.30      0.54      3.45
10:10:01 AM         0     80.60      0.00     15.34      0.56      3.50
10:10:01 AM         1     80.82      0.00     15.26      0.53      3.40
10:20:01 AM       all     72.02      0.00     12.79      1.01     14.18
10:20:01 AM         0     72.06      0.00     12.81      0.97     14.15
10:20:01 AM         1     71.99      0.00     12.76      1.04     14.22
10:30:01 AM       all     69.96      0.00     12.66      1.17     16.21
10:30:01 AM         0     69.86      0.00     12.60      1.16     16.38
10:30:01 AM         1     70.05      0.00     12.73      1.18     16.04
10:40:00 AM       all     77.87      0.00     15.42      0.58      6.13
10:40:00 AM         0     77.90      0.00     15.45      0.58      6.07
10:40:00 AM         1     77.85      0.00     15.38      0.59      6.18
10:49:59 AM       all     65.56      0.00     17.65      3.93     12.87
10:49:59 AM         0     64.74      0.00     17.76      3.89     13.61
10:49:59 AM         1     66.37      0.00     17.54      3.96     12.13
11:00:01 AM       all     64.52      0.00     22.36      6.82      6.30
11:00:01 AM         0     64.78      0.00     22.18      6.75      6.28
11:00:01 AM         1     64.26      0.00     22.55      6.89      6.31
11:10:01 AM       all     64.00      0.00     21.29      6.63      8.08
11:10:01 AM         0     63.83      0.00     21.29      6.66      8.23
11:10:01 AM         1     64.17      0.00     21.30      6.60      7.93
11:20:00 AM       all     69.71      0.00     21.51      3.57      5.21
11:20:00 AM         0     69.45      0.00     21.55      3.62      5.39
11:20:00 AM         1     69.98      0.00     21.47      3.52      5.03

Average:          all     50.51      0.00     10.56      2.32     36.61
Average:            0     50.38      0.00     10.62      2.33     36.68
Average:            1     50.64      0.00     10.50      2.31     36.55

Regards,
-- 
Ugo

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