High Load Avg and Context Switches

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Mon, 17 Mar 2003, Jeremy Sanders wrote:
> Why would pop3d have all the hot backup db files open? If 50 pop3d

There are no hot-backup files in your lsof output. Just the usual db log
files.  Run the db statistics stuff and see if you can find trouble spots,
such as too many lockers, or something like that.

> I'm running Cyrus IMAP 2.1.12 on a Redhat 7.3 box running kernel
> 2.4.20. The imap partition is on a Compaq RA4100 with a Compaq
> Fiber-channel HBA in the server. It is an lvm ext3 partition running
> w/
> noatime,data=ordered.

Try xfs with generous buffers for log data.  It improved matters quite a lot
here.  But I don't think your problem lies in the fs...

> was consistently below 5. The processor is mostly idle. I thought the

Find out which processes are in D or R state.  Are them all pop3d ?  What
processes are contending for the CPU during the CS spikes?
What database backends are you using in Cyrus?  What berkeley DB version?

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh