The loads on the system are increasing with the volume of classes being
taught using AIX and its compilers as their platform.  We tuning the
system to minimize the load on the user response time and on the system
as a whole.

This increased load is due to AIX swapping and paging due to low memory
availability within its virtual machine.  As part of our tuning we will
be expanding the virtual machine size within the limitations of the
VM/XA host operating system and its other guest systems.  This amount
has already been increased from 80 to 96 Mb on October 2nd at 6:00 AM
with some noted improvement in actual cpu utilization.

In the mean time, we are requesting that users run non-academic
background and foreground processes on zeus only while system loads
remain below 15 for sustained times.  NOTE:  These processes must fall
within posted system policies available via cpnn.

User who do not fall into this category may ignore the rest of this
item.

Examples of un-necessary process and when they should be run are:

I.	Run non-academic background processes on zeus at off hours when
	the system loads are lower than 15.  This would include, but
	not be limited to watch, rwatch and other utilities which do not
	directly support a classroom assignment.

II.	All non-course related software such as netnews (rn, trn,
	etc.) or any other software that is not directly related to a
	course or academic project for which you are receiving credit
	should be run during off hours when the system loads are lower
	than 15.

The loads on zeus may be observed by typing the loads command (or
"loads -L" for when you're logged into zeus only).  Please check this
information over several minutes (at least 5-10 minutes).  The output
from loads may look like:

zeus      [site  1]:  Users: 27   Loads: 35.56 34.60 30.56   Up:   0 days 06:59

where 35.56 is the one minute load average, 34.60 is the five minute
load average, and 30.56 is the 15 minute load average.  It is important
to observer these numbers over a 5-10 minute period before starting any
processes which fall under the categories above.  It is not unusual for
the system load average for one minute to go from 8 to 25+ in less than
30 seconds.  That effect also trickles down to the 5 and 15 minute
averages, so it is important to check several times over a 5-10 minute
span.

Please note that, with the exception of netnews which always runs on
zeus regardless of the users site, this applies only to zeus, although
when zeus's loads are high, the loads on the PS/2s will also increase.
When loads remain below 15 for sustained periods, these conditions do
not apply.  Please be sure to watch the system for a while before
starting these tasks on zeus as loads can change from less than 10 to
greater than 20 in seconds.

As our tuning proceeds and swapping within AIX is minimized, we will
remove this request.

Thank you for your cooperation!