eric <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> What I've noticed is that, with the following attributes in my
> config file, the load average sits quite high.

As the "load" is more or less the number of active processes, that's
not surprising. Is the machine slow? Unresponsive? Swapping?

> The hardware we're running on is an IBM x345 with a P4 2.4Ghz Xeon
> processor and 1.5GB of RAM. We're already addressing the issue of
> adding a second CPU. 

I might be wrong, but I don't think that a second CPU is needed.

> When running any types of scans tcp_connect, syn scans or nmap scans,
> etc. the load average will quite often sit at 30 or more on the
> host, taking days to scan 6 /24's. 

First, nmap can eat much memory. If you want to limit this, run it
before Nessus and upload the result file, or at least, remove the OS
fingerprinting options because they increase the memory
footprint. They are accurate and quite impressive, but not really
needed by Nessus. 

Second, I think that the network is a bottleneck. Rather than adding a
second CPU, you'd better add a second network card. 
You'll have to run two Nessus daemon or use some dirty low level trick
to make your OS believe that it has a 200 Mb/s card.
Or switch to a Gb card, if you can.


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