Markus Michalski FAQ

Watchdog: Load Average

Monitors the one-minute system load relative to the CPU count using factor thresholds. Reads /proc/loadavg. Type load_average, runner Agent. Fields, statuses, messages.

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Watchdog: Load Average

The check compares the system load of the last minute with the number of CPUs. It reads /proc/loadavg and counts the processor entries in /proc/cpuinfo.

Property Value
Type identifier load_average
Runner Agent
Target in the email none

Fields

Field Key Default Meaning
Warn factor warn_factor 0.8 WARN when the load reaches at least this factor times the CPU count
Fail factor fail_factor 1.5 FAIL when the load reaches at least this factor times the CPU count

The warn factor must be smaller than the fail factor.

Behaviour

Example with 4 CPUs and the defaults: warn threshold 3.2, fail threshold 6.0.

Situation Status Message
Load below the warn threshold OK Load: <load> (<n> CPUs, warn threshold: <threshold>)
Load at or above the warn threshold WARN Load: <load> (<n> CPUs, warn threshold: <threshold>)
Load at or above the fail threshold FAIL Load: <load> (<n> CPUs, fail threshold: <threshold>)
Warn factor not smaller than fail factor UNKNOWN Invalid config: warn_factor (<w>) must be less than fail_factor (<f>)
/proc/loadavg not readable UNKNOWN /proc/loadavg unavailable — check runs only on Linux hosts
Read error FAIL Cannot read /proc/loadavg

The check needs no additional mounts or privileges.