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IETF RFC 546

Tenex load averages for July 1973

Last modified on Thursday, November 29th, 2001

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Network Working Group                                          B. Thomas
Request for Comments: 546                                      BBN-TENEX
NIC: 17792                                                10 August 1973


                   TENEX Load Averages for July 1973


   This RFC presents utilization data for the BBN and ISI TENEX systems
   which may be of interest to the network community.

   The graph on page 4 summarizes the load at the BBN-TENEX and USC-ISI
   Hosts during the work week for the month of July 1973.  The weekday
   hourly load average [1] for each site is plotted versus the time of
   day; the time of day is Eastern Daylight Time.

   Interpreting data such as this is tricky business.  However, it is
   difficult to resist making the following observations:

   1. The shapes of the BBN and ISI curves are approximately the same;
      furthermore, there is no skew between the curves.  This suggests
      that the user populations for the two systems have similar working
      habits and are acclimated to the same time zone.

   2. The significant features of both curves appear to be strongly
      correlated with "normal events" in the day of a user living on
      East Coast time,suggesting that the load at both sites is
      influenced most strongly by such users:

      a. the load begins to increase between 7-8 a.m. EDT as users begin
         their daily computing;

      b. it dips between 10-11 a.m. EDT (smoothed to a smaller rate of
         increase in the ISI curve) as users take their coffee break;

      c. the load peaks sharply between 1-2 p.m. EDT as users return
         from lunch to resume their computing;

      d. it decreases as the afternoon continues and as users go home
         from work;

      e. it reaches a local minimum between 6-7 p.m. EDT (minimum not
         present in ISI curve) when most people eat dinner;

      f. it increases to an evening peak between 9-10 p.m. EDT as some
         users come back from dinner and after dinner activities to
         resume their computing.




Thomas                                                       PAGE 1 top


RFC 546 TENEX Load Averages for July 1973 10 August 1973 3. The curve for ISI is smoother than the one for BBN: the "coffee break" dip appears only as a decrease in slope; the dinner break and evening peak are completely smoothed out. This smoothing is probably due to the influence of the West Coast users of the ISI machine. 4. During July the BBN system was more heavily loaded than the ISI system. Since the data collected did not include the number of active jobs it is not possible to determine from the data whether BBN had more users or just more demanding users. The data presented on the graph is available as a side effect of the RSEXEC system. The server programs for the RSEXEC system (RSSER programs) communicate regularly with one another exchanging status information. The RSSER program at each site maintains a (dynamic) data base of the information it collects from the RSSER programs at other sites. The NETLOAD command of the TENEX EXEC, as well as many RSEXEC commands, makes use of information in that database. The raw data for BBN and ISI [2] load curves (as well as data for the other TENEX sites that run RSSER) was collected by a program which creates daily load information files by periodically (every 3 minutes) reading load average data from the data base maintained by RSSER. The monthly summary was produced by a program that analyzes daily data files. [The following graph is also available in .PS and .PDF format.] Thomas PAGE 2 top

RFC 546 TENEX Load Averages for July 1973 10 August 1973 Weekday Hourly Load Averages July 1973 ^ B BBN-TENEX | I ISI-TENEX 10 + | | B | + | | | + B Load | Avg. | B | I + | | | * + I | | B I B | B 5 + | | B I | I + I | | | B + I B | B | I | I I B B + I | I B I | B | B I B + I I I | B * B | * * I I * | B B ---+--+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+> | 0-1 AM 6-7 AM 12-1 PM 6-7 PM 12 (midnight) (noon) (midnight) Time of Day (Eastern Daylight Time) Thomas PAGE 3 top

RFC 546 TENEX Load Averages for July 1973 10 August 1973 Endnotes [1] The TENEX load average is a measure of CPU demand. The load average is an average of the number of runable processes over a given time period. For example, an hourly load average of 10 would mean that (for a single CPU system) at any time during that hour one could expect to see 1 process running and 9 others ready to run (i.e., not blocked for I/O) waiting for the CPU. [2] The data for BBN and ISI was chosen for presentation in this RFC because the BBN and ISI TENEXs are two of the major time-sharing service hosts on the network. [ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ] [ into the online RFC archives by Jim Larson 3/98 ] Thomas PAGE 4 top

Tenex load averages for July 1973 RFC TOTAL SIZE: 6632 bytes PUBLICATION DATE: Thursday, November 29th, 2001 LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)


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