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Adjusting LFD Notifications for Load Levels

LFD monitors server security and load levels. Adjust PT_Load_Level in WHM to prevent false positives by matching it to the server's CPU cores.
Firewalls WHM
3 min read

LFD (Login Failure Daemon) is a process that runs on Linux servers. Together with ConfigServer Security and Firewall (CSF), LFD helps to monitor the security of your server and notify you of potential issues. While primarily monitoring login and firewall issues, LFD also monitors a number of other services on the server, including Load Level.

While the default Load Level settings on our Linux servers are generally appropriate for most situations, issues sometimes arise when a server is improved or resized. It is possible that LFD will begin sending “false positive” warnings about the average load level on the server, even though the server has plenty of capacity to handle the current load. The error can occur when an especially large or powerful server is using older settings for the PT_Load_Level setting. We’ll show you how to check for this type of error.

Check Number of CPU Cores

The first step to determining your correct PT_Load_Level setting is to verify the number of processor cores your server is using. The simplest way to find this information is to go to WHM and check the Server Information.

  1. Login to WHM (for more information, see Getting Started with WHM.
  2. Type “Server Information” into the search bar at the top left of the screen.
  1. Click Server Information. Check the number of processors listed. 
  1. Divide the number of processors by 2 to find the number of CPU cores (WHM typically counts hyperthreads as processors, so the number of processors listed is usually double the number of processor cores). In our example, 20 processors would equal 10 CPU Cores.

Adjusting the PT_Load_Level

The next step is check and adjust the PT_Load_Level if necessary. The PT_Load_Level should be equal to or lower than the number of CPU Cores on the server. If the PT_Load_Level is set accurately, it can help warn of possible load issues before they become a problem. However, if it is set too low, LFD will generate false positive warnings. 

  1. Enter “Firewall” in the WHM search bar.
  1. Click ConfigServer Security & Firewall.
  2. Scroll down to the Firewall Configuration button and click on it.
  1. Find the PT_Load Settings (the simplest way is to use your browser’s search function).
  1. If necessary, increase the PT_LOAD_LEVEL to match the number of CPU Cores you found earlier (you don’t need to lower this setting if the number of cores is lower than the default setting of 6).
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
  3. Click Change to save the changes you made.
  4. Click Restart csf+lfd so that the changes will go into effect.
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