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Load per CPU core

Load per CPU core is the load average divided by the number of CPU cores. It makes the load comparable between servers of different sizes: a load of 4 means something different on a server with two cores than on one with sixteen.

Why it matters

Section titled “Why it matters”

Roughly, a value of 1 means the processors had as much work as they could handle. Below 1, there was room to spare. Above 1, tasks had to wait, and pages that WordPress builds took longer.

It’s a rule of thumb rather than an exact measure. The load also counts tasks that wait for the disk, which don’t need a processor, and the CPU count may include processors your site can’t fully use. Load per CPU core isn’t a standard value of the operating system; it’s calculated.

What influences it

Section titled “What influences it”

WordPress: The same things that drive up the load average: many uncached PHP requests at the same time, from crawlers and bots, logged-in users or a shop’s checkout, and scheduled tasks such as backups and imports.

Server: Other work on the same machine, slow storage, and how the provider counts and limits CPUs. On shared hosting and in containers, the load may cover the whole host while the CPU count shows processors you only get a share of.

In Permo

Section titled “In Permo”

The Server load card is in System info, tab Server & System, under Server. It shows the 1-minute load average divided by the number of CPU cores, and in the note both numbers, such as “Load 1.20 on 4 cores”:

  • Green up to 0.8 per core.
  • Yellow above 0.8, with High.
  • Red above 1, with Overloaded, and above 2 with Extreme.

Without the number of cores, the card shows the load alone, with Not rated: core count unknown.

The History, view Server, shows Load per CPU core for every check. When it stays above 1, the Dashboard lists The server is often overloaded under Needs attention (see notifications). On shared hosting, the load is that of the whole machine, including other sites.

Section titled “Related”

Sources