Why Your Linux Server “Looks Idle” but "Feels" Slow

Articles & guides
1
Read the full article: Why Your Linux Server “Looks Idle” but “Feels” Slow

Servers can sometimes appear idle yet still perform sluggishly. This scenario is common across web hosting servers, database servers, VPS or cloud instances, or even containerized workloads. In all mainstream Linux distributions, the core reasons and diagnostics are similar. Below, we explain why an “idle” server might be slow and how to diagnose the real… continue reading.
6 Likes
Weekly Forum Summary
2

Very, very good article!

1 Like
Weekly Forum Summary
4

I’m afraid that without doing look-ups, I get stuck at the first screenshot. What is %wai exactly? Is it the overall amount of time the CPU is awaiting I/O, or is it related in some way to the %idle figure? Either way, I/O is relatively slow, so is 8% really a lot? I don’t see how these figures indicate sluggishness.

1 Like
5

Just about. wrote an explanation of io wait here:

Weekly Forum Summary
6

I agree with your primary assertion that CPU and memory are rarely the limiting factor for server performance. This is arguably true most of the time for desktop and laptop client configurations too.

What’s really illuminating are your explanations and visual examples of tools that can be used to locate the specific performance problems.

This is a really good article; took me long enough to get a good look at it!

1 Like