high context switching and high load averages slowing down system

[Magnus Andersen <mag andersen gmail com>]

Hi All,

I have a HP DL 580 with 4 3 GHz CPUs and 4 GB RAM.  I'm running Oracle
on it.  Throughout the day I am getting high load averages (6 - 18)
and at the same time I see context switching go over 300,000. 
Sometimes over 500,000.  This is slowing the system down to a crawl.

My OS is RHEL 3 AS Update 4 with the 2.4.21-32.0.1.ELsmp kernel.

Any ideas on why this is happening and how to fix it?

Thanks in advance,
-- 
Magnus Andersen
Systems Administrator / Oracle DBA
Walker & Associates, Inc.