[M3devel] tinderbox status improvements/diagnosis

[Olaf Wagner]

Quoting Jay K <jay.krell at cornell.edu>:

>>>> I've heard cvs is a cpu hog, it's one reason people switch away from
>>>> it (which I hope we'll do after this release..)
>>
>> I'll have to search, initial searches failed.
>>
>>> Not that I know... it usually sleeps while waiting for file i/o.
>>
>> True.
>
> Load average is high on birch, 8.
> I don't know what this means but I thought it was was supposed to be  
>  around 1.

No. The load average is the average number of processes competing for cpu
within the last one/five/fifteen minutes. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_(computing) for details.

In general no process will wait for CPU at all if your load average
is lower than the number of processors.

> Or is 1 times the number of processors?

  o Linux systems count not only runnable processes as the article
    in Wikipedia says.

  o Unix systems in general can handle high loads fairly well.

  o birch is performing a lot of services: CVS, ssh, ftp, web service,
    trac, mail backup, etc. So a somewhat higher load is expected.

> cvs, by me and hudson, often visible taking a lot, judging by top.

I really think the limiting factor are the disks, unless you are
using compression and/or encryption (-z, ssh access). But that is
not inherent to CVS.

You will find that running other SCM systems (like ClearCase,
Subversion with HTTPS/Apache access, PVCS/Dimensions, ...) will
put much higher demands to your resources than simple CVS.

> Tinderbox...is causing too much heat in my apartment. After a few   
> green runs I'll have to see about powering the machines on once a   
> week or something for one run and then power back off.

That's understandable.

> Maybe leave just one running daily or in a loop, like LINUXLIB6.

> Later maybe move all x86/amd64 machines to virtual machines and   
> inherit power management of host or scheduled power off/on.

I think we should try to obtain access to a few machines in a
large data center. Perhaps we can use the HP Partner Virtualization Program.
I'm not sure if we can get access for an open source project or need
to make a contract as a company (Elego). We'll investigate that.

Olaf
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