Index: common.scm
==================================================================
--- common.scm
+++ common.scm
@@ -1919,43 +1919,15 @@
 		    (debug:print 0 *default-log-port* "INFO: Found host: " new-best " load: " load " last-used: " delta " seconds ago, with job-rate: " job-rate)
 		    (host-last-used-set! rec curr-time)
 		    new-best)
 		  (if (null? tal) #f (loop (car tal)(cdr tal) best-host)))))))))
 
-(define (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload-in numcpus-in waitdelay #!key (count 1000) (msg #f)(remote-host #f)(force-maxload #f))
-  (let* ((loadavg (common:get-cpu-load remote-host))
-	 (numcpus (if (<= 1 numcpus-in) ;; not possible to have zero.  If we get 1, it's possible that we got the previous default, and we should check again
-		      (common:get-num-cpus remote-host)
-		      numcpus-in))
-	 (maxload (if force-maxload
-		      maxload-in
-		      (max maxload-in 0.5))) ;; so maxload must be greater than 0.5 for now BUG - FIXME?
-	 (first   (car loadavg))
-	 (next    (cadr loadavg))
-	 (adjload (* maxload (max 1 numcpus))) ;; possible bug where numcpus (or could be maxload) is zero, crude fallback is to at least use 1
-	 (loadjmp (- first next))
-         (adjwait (min (+ 300 (random 10)) (abs (* (+ (random 10)(/ (- 1000 count) 10) waitdelay) (- first adjload) ))  ))) ;; add some randomness to the time to break any alignment where netbatch dumps many jobs to machines simultaneously
-    (debug:print-info 1 *default-log-port* "Checking cpuload on " (or remote-host "localhost") ", maxload: " maxload
-		      ", load: " first ", adjload: " adjload ", loadjmp: " loadjmp)
-    (cond
-     ((and (> first adjload)
-	   (> count 0))
-      (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "server start delayed " adjwait " seconds due to load " first " exceeding max of " adjload " on server " (or remote-host (get-host-name)) " (normalized load-limit: " maxload ") " (if msg msg ""))
-      (thread-sleep! adjwait)
-      (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload numcpus waitdelay count: (- count 1) msg: msg remote-host: remote-host))
-     ((and (> loadjmp numcpus)
-	   (> count 0))
-      (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "waiting " adjwait " seconds due to load jump " loadjmp " > numcpus " numcpus (if msg msg ""))
-      (thread-sleep! adjwait)
-      (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload numcpus waitdelay count: (- count 1) msg: msg remote-host: remote-host)))))
-
 (define (common:wait-for-homehost-load maxload msg)
   (let* ((hh-dat (if (common:on-homehost?) ;; if we are on the homehost then pass in #f so the calls are local.
                      #f
                      (common:get-homehost)))
-         (hh     (if hh-dat (car hh-dat) #f))
-         (numcpus (common:get-num-cpus hh)))
+         (hh     (if hh-dat (car hh-dat) #f)))
     (common:wait-for-normalized-load maxload msg hh)))
 
 (define (common:get-num-cpus remote-host)
   (let* ((actual-host (or remote-host (get-host-name))))
     (or (common:get-cached-info actual-host "num-cpus" age: 86400) ;; hosts had better not be changing the number of cpus too often!
@@ -1982,10 +1954,39 @@
 ;;
 (define (common:wait-for-normalized-load maxload msg remote-host)
   (let ((num-cpus (common:get-num-cpus remote-host)))
     (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload num-cpus 15 msg: msg remote-host: remote-host)))
 
+;; DO NOT CALL THIS DIRECTLY. It is called from common:wait-for-normalized-load
+;;
+(define (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload-in numcpus-in waitdelay #!key (count 1000) (msg #f)(remote-host #f)(force-maxload #f))
+  (let* ((loadavg (common:get-cpu-load remote-host))
+	 (numcpus (if (<= 1 numcpus-in) ;; not possible to have zero.  If we get 1, it's possible that we got the previous default, and we should check again
+		      (common:get-num-cpus remote-host)
+		      numcpus-in))
+	 (maxload (if force-maxload
+		      maxload-in
+		      (max maxload-in 0.5))) ;; so maxload must be greater than 0.5 for now BUG - FIXME?
+	 (first   (car loadavg))
+	 (next    (cadr loadavg))
+	 (adjload (* maxload (max 1 numcpus))) ;; possible bug where numcpus (or could be maxload) is zero, crude fallback is to at least use 1
+	 (loadjmp (- first next))
+         (adjwait (min (+ 300 (random 10)) (abs (* (+ (random 10)(/ (- 1000 count) 10) waitdelay) (- first adjload) ))  )));; add some randomness to the time to break any alignment where netbatch dumps many jobs to machines simultaneously
+    (debug:print-info 1 *default-log-port* "Checking cpuload on " (or remote-host "localhost") ", maxload: " maxload
+		      ", load: " first ", adjload: " adjload ", loadjmp: " loadjmp)
+    (cond
+     ((and (> first adjload)
+	   (> count 0))
+      (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "server start delayed " adjwait " seconds due to load " first " exceeding max of " adjload " on server " (or remote-host (get-host-name)) " (normalized load-limit: " maxload ") " (if msg msg ""))
+      (thread-sleep! adjwait)
+      (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload numcpus waitdelay count: (- count 1) msg: msg remote-host: remote-host))
+     ((and (> loadjmp numcpus)
+	   (> count 0))
+      (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "waiting " adjwait " seconds due to load jump " loadjmp " > numcpus " numcpus (if msg msg ""))
+      (thread-sleep! adjwait)
+      (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload numcpus waitdelay count: (- count 1) msg: msg remote-host: remote-host)))))
+
 (define (get-uname . params)
   (let* ((uname-res (process:cmd-run->list (conc "uname " (if (null? params) "-a" (car params)))))
 	 (uname #f))
     (if (null? (car uname-res))
 	"unknown"

Index: runs.scm
==================================================================
--- runs.scm
+++ runs.scm
@@ -1017,11 +1017,10 @@
 	 (non-completed           (filter (lambda (x)             ;; remove hed from not completed list, duh, of course it is not completed!
 					    (not (equal? x hed)))
 					  (runs:calc-not-completed prereqs-not-met)))
 	 (loop-list               (list hed tal reg reruns))
 	 ;; configure the load runner
-	 (numcpus                 (common:get-num-cpus #f))
 	 (maxload                 (string->number (or (configf:lookup *configdat* "jobtools" "maxload") "3.0")))         ;; use a non-number string to disable
          (maxhomehostload         (string->number (or (configf:lookup *configdat* "jobtools" "maxhomehostload") "2.0"))) ;; use a non-number string to disable
          (waitdelay               (string->number (or (configf:lookup *configdat* "jobtools" "waitdelay") "60"))))
     (debug:print-info 4 *default-log-port* "have-resources: " have-resources " prereqs-not-met: (" 
 		      (string-intersperse 
@@ -1119,14 +1118,19 @@
 		    (not (member 'exclusive testmode)))))
       ;; (hash-table-delete! *max-tries-hash* (db:test-make-full-name test-name item-path))
       ;; we are going to reset all the counters for test retries by setting a new hash table
       ;; this means they will increment only when nothing can be run
       (set! *max-tries-hash* (make-hash-table))
+      
       ;; well, first lets see if cpu load throttling is enabled. If so wait around until the
       ;; average cpu load is under the threshold before continuing
-      (if maxload ;; only gate if maxload is specified
-          (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload numcpus waitdelay))
+
+      ;; jobtools maxload is useful for where the full Megatest run is done on one machine
+      (if maxload ;; only gate if maxload is specified, NOTE: maxload is normalized, i.e. load=1 means all cpus fully utilized
+          (common:wait-for-normalized-load maxload "Waiting for load to drop before starting more tests" #f))
+
+      ;; jobtools maxhomehostload is intended to prevent overloading on the homehost which can cause database corruption issues
       (if maxhomehostload
           (common:wait-for-homehost-load maxhomehostload (conc "Waiting for homehost load to drop below normalized value of " maxhomehostload)))
       
       (run:test run-id run-info keyvals runname test-record flags #f test-registry all-tests-registry)
       (runs:incremental-print-results run-id)

Index: server.scm
==================================================================
--- server.scm
+++ server.scm
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
-
 ;; Copyright 2006-2017, Matthew Welland.
 ;; 
 ;; This file is part of Megatest.
 ;; 
 ;;     Megatest is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -151,11 +150,12 @@
 	  (debug:print-info 0 *default-log-port* "Starting server on " target-host ", logfile is " logfile)
 	  (setenv "TARGETHOST" target-host)))
       
     (setenv "TARGETHOST_LOGF" logfile)
     (thread-sleep! (/ (random 5000) 1000)) ;; add about a random (up to 5 seconds) initial delay. It seems pretty common that many running tests request a server at the same time
-    (common:wait-for-normalized-load load-limit " delaying server start due to load" target-host) ;; do not try starting servers on an already overloaded machine, just wait forever
+    ;; (common:wait-for-normalized-load load-limit " delaying server start due to load" target-host) ;; do not try starting servers on an already overloaded machine, just wait forever
+    (common:wait-for-homehost-load load-limit (conc " delaying server start due to load on homehost. limit is " load-limit))
     (system (conc "nbfake " cmdln))
     (unsetenv "TARGETHOST_LOGF")
     (if (get-environment-variable "TARGETHOST")(unsetenv "TARGETHOST"))
     (thread-join! log-rotate)
     (pop-directory)))