Optimum Load Average for an i3 linux system

Question

I am having an i3 linux Server and i got the below mentioned info about the system

root@XYZ:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 42
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2120 CPU @ 3.30GHz
stepping        : 7
microcode       : 0x25
cpu MHz         : 1600.000
cache size      : 3072 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 4
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes

The current Load Average is and uptime is: load average: 3.70, 3.03, 2.77

I want to monitor the load average of the server through Nagios. For that i want to know about the optimal load average for the system to set the warning and critical threshold.

i got some information : i7 = 4 cores with 2 threads per core if its like that, then what will be the maximum load average threshold? 8 or 4?

Answer 1

Optimal Load average equals your number of CPU Cores.

if you have 8 CPU Cores (can be found using cat /proc/cpuinfo) on a Linux server, the ideal Load average should be around 8 (+/- 1). If its > 8, then the server resources are over-utilized and if < 8, the server isn’t running with its full potential.