[OT] How to understand what cause Load Machine increase

[Alex Broens]

On 2010-09-20 10:45, Marcello Anderlini wrote:
> Hello guys, 
> I've a weird problem with my system. Some time, and I still not know why,my
> load machine average increase rapidly 
> I normal use the load machine average is between 10 and 15. but sometime the
> load increase and reach 35 or 36. when this appen all the system became slow
> and also server pop3 (dovecot) had timeout.
> 
> I'm using an old version of mailscanner (mailscanner-4.58.9-1.) on a CentOS
> release 4.8 
> 
> Could you please suggest me where to start to look for found the cause of
> the problem ?
> 
> Thanks for all and sorry for my worst English.

just basing on your load I'd suggest you start off by adding lottsa RAM 
to your box.
Obviously you need to find out what is trashing your system, but Ram is 
usually cheaper than manpower :-)