Re: cpu average load

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:59:11 -0600, Cary Millsap <cary.millsap_at_hotsos.com> wrote:
> I disagree that this advice is difficult to implement in practice, =
> because I
> implement it in practice frequently.

I disagree with mladen for a somewhat different reason (i.e I don't care about ease of use here). It seems to me this discussion springs from a technical question that may or may not be worth answering. Paula's question was along the lines of 'how can I tell if my server is being utilized efficiently'. One possible answer to this is 'Who cares?'. Now if the question is being asked because there is an ongoing discussion about buying new hardware, or the transactional capacity of the system is apparently not good enough for the business needs of the state then there is a real business problem to investigate.

iff there is a real problem to be investigated, then it doesn't really matter how easy or hard it is to get the correct answer (unless the cost of obtaining the answer is higher than the cost of not answering), it is the correct answer that you require.

So I'd be taking a step back and asking Paula to define *why* she is investigating the amount of the CPU capacity of her machines that Oracle is using. If you can express that in clear business terms then you can go down the profiling route (or any other method you think appropriate).

BTW In this particular case, my money would be on unaccounted-for time being a better measurement of time spent being prempted than the kernel mode time consumed by the whole system, but I'm willing to be proven wrong.

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.niall.litchfield.dial.pipex.com
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