Tuning up an Ultrix system? HELP

[Stefan Brandle]

In article <722 at shodha.dec.com> alan at shodha.dec.com ( Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.) writes:
>	1.  First use vmstat(1) to look at:
>
>	    a.  How much memory you have and if you might be
>		paging.
>	    b.  How the CPU is spending its time.
 procs     memory                       page      disk  faults          cpu
 r b w   avm  fre  re at  pi  po  fr  de  sr r0 r2 x2 x3  in  sy  cs us sy id
 2 0 0   671 5911   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  2  0  0  0  85  73  14 10 20 70
 1 1 0   710 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  2  0  0  0 901 256  10  5 65 31
 1 0 0   313 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  0  0  0  0 950 262   9  7 80 13
 1 0 0   542 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  1  0  0 956 268  10  6 84  9
 1 0 0   476 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  3  0  0 475 147  26  6 76 18
 1 0 0   440 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  0  0  0 959 268  14  6 68 26
 0 0 0   542 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  1  0  0 953 275   9  7 83 11
 0 0 0   416 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  2  0  0  0 314  94   6  5 54 41
 1 0 0   410 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  0  0  0  0 957 266  15  7 83 10
 1 0 0   385 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  0  0  0 950 266   9  6 85  9
 1 0 0   513 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  0  0  0 964 272  11  6 84 10
 1 0 0   313 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  1  0  0 318  90  24  5 62 33
 0 0 0   542 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  1  0  0 961 267  20  6 84  9
 1 0 0   513 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  0  0  0 931 265  12  6 84 10
 1 0 0   477 5865   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  0  0  0 563 165   6  5 56 39
 1 0 0   567 5863   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  1  0  0  0 941 265   9  8 84  8
 1 2 0   770 5829   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  3  0  0  0 639 291  25 18 80  2
 1 0 0  1066 5787   4 10   5   0   0   0   0  3  1  0  0 491 205  25 19 75  7
 2 0 0   856 5658   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  2  0  0  0 920 273  11 11 70 19
 1 0 0   942 5655   0  0   0   0   0   0   0  0  0  0  0 954 267   9  8 82 10

I'm running this on a uVAX II Ultrix 2.0.
Looks like what makes me sluggish is all those interrupts.  It gets up over
1000/second frequently.  Wonder if all that news coming in is relevant (:-).

On the basis of what Alan said, my problem is not too much user activity.  It's
also not memory, since we're not running under 5MB free in this case.  There is
that one blip of activity in paging country, but it doesn't appear to be a big
deal at all.

 procs     memory                       page      disk  faults          cpu
 r b w   avm  fre  re at  pi  po  fr  de  sr r0 r2 x2 x3  in  sy  cs us sy id
 1 0 0  1066 5787   4 10   5   0   0   0   0  3  1  0  0 491 205  25 19 75  7

We do have a number of students using this machine and it sometimes gets rather
sluggish.  My feeling is that news and many students don't mix well on a 
uVAX II.  I can reschedule news--I know how to do that--but wonder whether 
there is anything else that can be modified kernel-wise that will make a 
significant difference.  My guess is no, but maybe somebody has ideas.

-stefan
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Stefan Brandle                  UUCP: ...!{obdient,uunet!tellab5}!wheaton!stefan
Wheaton College			or	stefan at wheaton.UUCP
Wheaton, IL 60187 		"But I never claimed to be sane!"