What does "Load" mean in the Host Metrics screen?

[#1]

What is the definition of "Load " in the context of the Host Metrics page in Ambari? And how is it calculated?

[#2]

Ambari Metrics Service uses psutil library to collect host metrics. The metrics's explanation can be found here - https://pythonhosted.org/psutil/.

The Load graph contains the metrics for 1-minute / 5minute and 15minute Load average on the host.

For more information, from the psutil docs,

• Q: What about load average?
• A: psutil does not expose any load average function as it’s already available in python as os.getloadavg

https://docs.python.org/2/library/os.html#os.getloadavg