How to track down a high server load RedHat/CentOS/Fedora/SuSe

Line 1 - General server information - Current time, uptime (since last restart of server), number of users logged on (other than yourself), and the load average for the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes
Line 2 - Tasks - Number of processes, number of actively running processes, sleeping process, stopped process, and zombie processes
Line 3 - CPU usage info (User, System, Nice, Idle, Waiting, Hardware Interrupts, Software Interrupts).  Just worry about Idle, user, system, and waiting.
Line 4 - Memory usage
Line 5 - Swap usage (used should be almost 0 if not 0)
Table header for process list (Process ID, User, Priority, Nice, Virtual Memory, Resident Size, Shared Size, , State, CPU, Memory, CPU Time used, Command)
The processes themselves



login as: root
Access denied
root@192.168.200.102's password:
Last login: Tue Jul  3 02:47:21 2012 from 192.168.200.1

[root@openstack ~]# top -b -i -n 20 >> ./server-load

[root@openstack ~]# cat server-load
top - 00:55:00 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.84, 1.09, 0.49
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  7.5%us, 20.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 58.7%id,  7.0%wa,  6.1%hi,  0.7%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23112k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203320k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2908 1020  796 R  3.7  0.1   0:00.06 top


top - 00:55:03 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.84, 1.09, 0.49
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  1.0%us,  8.9%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.8%id,  0.0%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23112k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203336k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.08 top


top - 00:55:06 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.85, 1.10, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  8.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 84.7%id,  3.3%wa,  2.7%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23120k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203328k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.10 top


top - 00:55:09 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.85, 1.10, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  9.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.0%id,  0.0%wa,  3.3%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23120k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203336k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.12 top


top - 00:55:12 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.79, 1.10, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  2.3%us,  9.9%sy,  0.0%ni, 80.9%id,  3.3%wa,  3.3%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23128k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203328k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  1.0  0.1   0:00.15 top


top - 00:55:15 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.72, 1.10, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  9.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.0%id,  0.0%wa,  3.7%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23128k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203336k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.17 top


top - 00:55:18 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.72, 1.10, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  9.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.0%id,  1.0%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23136k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203336k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.19 top


top - 00:55:21 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.66, 1.10, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  1.0%us,  8.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 87.1%id,  0.0%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23136k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203344k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  1.0  0.1   0:00.22 top


top - 00:55:24 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.66, 1.10, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  9.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 85.7%id,  1.0%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23144k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203348k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.24 top


top - 00:55:27 up 4 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.61, 1.10, 0.51
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  8.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 87.5%id,  0.0%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23144k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203348k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.26 top


top - 00:55:30 up 5 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.48, 1.08, 0.50
Tasks: 124 total,   1 running, 123 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  1.0%us,  8.9%sy,  0.0%ni, 85.5%id,  1.7%wa,  2.6%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488776k used,   539192k free,    23152k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203348k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  1.0  0.1   0:00.29 top


top - 00:55:33 up 5 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.48, 1.08, 0.50
Tasks: 119 total,   1 running, 118 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.3%us,  9.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.8%id,  0.0%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488744k used,   539224k free,    23152k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203348k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.31 top


top - 00:55:36 up 5 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.44, 1.08, 0.51
Tasks: 120 total,   1 running, 119 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  8.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.0%id,  1.7%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488744k used,   539224k free,    23160k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203340k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  0.7  0.1   0:00.33 top


top - 00:55:40 up 5 min,  3 users,  load average: 1.44, 1.08, 0.51
Tasks: 120 total,   1 running, 119 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.7%us,  9.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 86.5%id,  0.0%wa,  3.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1027968k total,   488744k used,   539224k free,    23160k buffers
Swap:  2064380k total,        0k used,  2064380k free,   203348k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 1337 root      20   0  2884 1040  812 R  1.0  0.1   0:00.36 top

[root@openstack ~]#