How to Check Server Load Average

Prerequisites

Before checking load average, make sure you have:

• SSH access to your VPS
• Your server IP address and password

What is Load Average?

Load average shows the number of processes waiting for CPU time. It appears as three numbers:

• 1 minute average - Immediate system load
• 5 minute average - Recent trend
• 15 minute average - Long-term trend

Method 1: Using uptime Command

Connect to your VPS:

ssh hxroot@YOUR_SERVER_IP -p 22

uptime

Example output:

 14:30:15 up 10 days, 2:30, 2 users, load average: 0.25, 0.30, 0.35

Method 2: Using top Command

top

Look at the first line:

top - 14:30:15 up 10 days, load average: 0.25, 0.30, 0.35

Press q to exit.

Method 3: View via Hostxpeed Portal

Your Hostxpeed client area shows load average in real-time:

1. Log in to Hostxpeed Client Area at https://server.softileo.com
2. Go to My Services
3. Click your VPS service
4. Look for the Load Average card (e.g., 0.5 - 1m / 5m / 15m)

Understanding Load Average Numbers (for 4 CPU Core VPS)

Get Load Average in Raw Numbers (for scripting)

cat /proc/loadavg

Output:

0.25 0.30 0.35 2/345 12345

Monitor Load Average Over Time

watch -n 2 uptime

Updates every 2 seconds. Press Ctrl+C to exit.

Check Load Average Per CPU Core

mpstat -P ALL 1 3

If mpstat not installed:

apt install sysstat -y

Historical Load Average Data

Check last 5 reboots and loads:

last -x | grep reboot

Simple Load Average Monitor Script

#!/bin/bash
# Get number of CPU cores
CORES=$(nproc)
# Get 1-minute load average
LOAD=$(uptime | awk -F''load average:'' ''{print $2}'' | cut -d',' -f1 | sed ''s/ //g'')
# Calculate threshold (80% of cores)
THRESHOLD=$(echo "$CORES * 0.8" | bc)
# Compare
if (( $(echo "$LOAD > $THRESHOLD" | bc -l) )); then
    echo "Warning: Load average is $LOAD on $(hostname) (Threshold: $THRESHOLD)"
fi

What Causes High Load Average?

• High CPU usage (multiple processes running)
• High I/O wait (disk/network bottlenecks)
• Insufficient RAM (swap usage)
• Runaway processes (infinite loops)
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks

Troubleshooting High Load

Find top CPU-consuming processes:

ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -10

Check I/O wait:

iostat -x 1

Check memory usage:

free -h

Check disk activity:

iotop