Server spinning out of control...

[Rus Foster]

>    We've got a server that occassionally becomes temporarily useless
> because the load average shoots up to around 150.0 or so, and then slowly
> winds down over a 2 minute period. I cannot seem to find the process which
> is putting so much load on the machine. I've tried running top with the q
> switch, as well as the "I" switch, and when top opens, I can't see
> anything consuming large amounts of CPU power or consuming much memory,
> but the load average will be incredibly high. There isn't anything unusual
> in /var/log/messages to indicate anything which might be causing the load
> average to go shooting through the ceiling.

Are you running any sort of spam filtering? Could a use put something in
their ~/.forward?

Rus

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