High Load Average (10+) caused by /usr/bin/updatedb

[nat]

Load average before running /usr/bin/updatedb: less than 0.5

Load average after killing /usr/bin/updatedb: less than 0.5

Load average running /usr/bin/updatedb: 7 to 15

Top shows it isn't using that much cpu:

7953 root 9 0 676 676 412 D 0.5 0.1 0:08 updatedb



What all does /usr/bin/updatedb do and how long does it take to do what it is doing? If it is only caculating disk space usage, then there needs to be an option in cpanel to have that run once a day or whatever. If it is going to add up all the disk space usage for all of my domains on a 80 GB hard drive nearly full of data every 10-15 minutes, then that is not good.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[netlook]

Anyone?

[nat]

updatedb is updating the slocate database. the high load is not because of cpu usage. high load is caused by the entire drive being read and cataloged into database. the top program in RedHat Enterprises shows iowait % used along with the other info.