The Linode Alerts for "CPU Usage" are currently specified (in the Linode Manager) as:



But in fact, the true implementation seems to be more like this:



Haven't tested the alerts for "Disk IO Rate", "Incoming Traffic" and "Outbound Traffic" but I guess it is possible that they follow the same pattern. I think this actual check is much less useful than the one specified in the original text, since my machines tend to have peak burst loads which sometimes average more than 10% during 5 minute intervals.

Hello cederberg,

This is actually a bug in RRD. Usually the average is returned, in some cases the peak is returned. We haven't yet tracked it down but it is an issue we are aware of.

Mike