System load average

The system load threshold range for Linux servers

The load average is the average system load on a Linux server for a defined period of time. In other words, it is the CPU demand of a server that includes sum of the running and the waiting threads. The server load threshold value should be between 0 to 50. 

Examples:
  1. If the capacity of your processor is 1000 instructions per second and there are 1000 instructions waiting to be executed, the server load is 1.
  2. A server load of 2 means there are twice the number of instructions than the processor can handle at a time. 

So, ideally, for critical servers, the server load should not exceed 1 for a single core processor. Read our blog to know more on load average and how to determine if your server has sufficient load capacity.