What means load_one metric Y-Axis in Ganglia/RRD Tool?

Question

I'm using Ganglia + RRDTool for monitoring a web farm. Many graphs are very clear but when I see load_one metric, I don't have Y-axis legend.

So, what the Y-axis means?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Load_one is the load average over one minute. It is the number of threads (kernel level) that are runnable and queued while waiting for CPU resources, averaged over one minute.

The number should be interpreted in relation with the number of hardware threads available on the machine and the time it takes to drain the run queue. The latter can be evaluated by looking at five and fifteen minute load averages, as long as these stay reasonable, you should be OK