Alot of i/o wait ... what to do ?

[Salmus]

Hello,

I have a big problem with my server and I want your advice. My server started to have very high load (and alot of it is i/o wait)

I run ubuntu with Intel quad core xeon.

I'm sure that the problem is hard-drive access, when my server got alot of requests - the hard-drive is slow ... and my processor goes in i/o wait = 99%


I'm thinking to buy faster disks (generation 3 S-ATA II) and RaiserFS partition to solve this problem, but I do not want to drop my current hard-drive.

I'm thinking about 2 HDD's mounted on /home - for faster data access - it is possible ?


What do you say ?

 

[tanfwc]

I guess you better hire a system admin to look into your box. Your average IO is reasonable just that the peak

 

[Salmus]

I guess you better hire a system admin to look into your box. Your average IO is reasonable just that the peak

I am a system administrator, and sometimes sys admins needs help - we didn't know everything.

I never ever saw this problem on my other servers (well, they aren't for webhosting). I just requested an opinion, don't send me to a sys admin - I'm running UNIX/LINUX OS for over 10 years.


Thanks

 

[nobaloney]

I'm thinking about 2 HDD's mounted on /home - for faster data access - it is possible ?

Do you mean as a RAID configuration? Or do you mean different hosts on different drives? Either is possible. If you're going to do the former, that's a systems admin job. If you're going to do the latter, then you should know that you'll have to modify DirectAdmin templates (it's been discussed on these forums before) and you can start loading up a new drive.

But if the latter way, no, they both can't be called /home in a way that'll save you machine cycles; you'd have to name it something such as /home2.

You can of course create a virtual drive system and add drives as needed to /home, but whether or not it will increase your effective drive access time is something you'll have to determine by trying it.

If you're sure the problem is drive related how about rebuilding your server to be more right-sized for what it's hosting ... faster drives? A large RAID array, Network Attached Storage, a Storage Area Network?

But of course, you're a systems administrator with ten years experience, so you knew all this, right ?

Jeff

 

[scsi]

Try:

iostat

when the server is fine and when it is busy and look for any degredation

 

[Salmus]

But of course, you're a systems administrator with ten years experience, so you knew all this, right ?

Jeff

Ok Thanks ... You gaved me some ideas, you never can't know everything - and is not a shame to ask neither to 'do not know' - I didn't said that 'I KNOW' -- that's why I asked here.


Never had this i/o problem, I'll solve it using your ideas.


Thanks.

 

[nobaloney]

And of course the "" I used in my post let you know I was only having a bit of fun with you. At least I hope so .

I know full well we professional Systems Administrators can't possibly know everything. I hire a very good one myself, as well as doing what I know how to do.

And I'm continually reading to update my knowledge.

Don't forget (not just you, but everyone), the free help we get on these forums is a bargain at twice the price .

Jeff