Hi Simon, very kind to get back to me with this. I see that I get the spikes when I do a "top" via SSH whenever users log in and I see PHP-CLI command called followed by mysqld. So this is a semi- pinpoint of the issue. I am using Moodle 2.3.2 and I installed it, or tried to, using the one-click install feature in Moodle. But that idiot-proof way of installing didn't work, since it wanted to put Moodle into the /httpd directory while I had a domain I attached in what was automatically named /site1 by Plesk when I attached the domain to my dedicated IP address. So maybe I confused the thing. In any case I am ready to listen to any fixes or suggestions; I could also use GoToMeeting to actually show you or others what I'm seeing when doing a "top" in real time. Whatever. Or send /var/log/https error_log info. For the moment I have cut away all the fat I can imagine in other areas. Set crond to a nice level of +19, etc. But whenever there are multiple logins or even single sometimes there are dangerous spikes in average load. I will be watching your response. Gary