From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 3 Aug 2001 09:07:42 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 3 Aug 2001 09:07:33 -0400 Received: from mail.intrex.net ([209.42.192.246]:59658 "EHLO intrex.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 3 Aug 2001 09:07:17 -0400 Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2001 09:07:03 -0400 From: jlnance@intrex.net To: Rik van Riel , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Ongoing 2.4 VM suckage Message-ID: <20010803090703.B1248@bessie.localdomain> In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: ; from riel@conectiva.com.br on Thu, Aug 02, 2001 at 07:27:42PM -0300 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Aug 02, 2001 at 07:27:42PM -0300, Rik van Riel wrote: > On Thu, 2 Aug 2001, Jeffrey W. Baker wrote: > > > I'm telling you that's not what happens. When memory pressure > > gets really high, the kernel takes all the CPU time and the box > > is completely useless. Maybe the VM sorts itself out but after > > five minutes of barely responding, I usually just power cycle > > the damn thing. As I said, this isn't a classic thrash because > > the swap disks only blip perhaps once every ten seconds! > > What kind of workload are you running ? > > We could be dealing with some weird artifact of > virtual page scanning here, or with a strange > side effect of recent VM changes ... Rik, FWIW, I am seeing this sort of thing too, though I am running a 2.4.5 kernel so I am a little out of date. Its a large machine with 2G of ram, 4G of swap, and 2 CPUs. You dont have to actually use all the memory either. When my process gets to about 1.5G and starts doing lots of file I/O, the machine can just disappear for several minutes. I will be sshed in and I can not even get my shell to give me a new prompt when I hit return. It will eventually sort it self out, but it might take 15 minutes. I will try and get a more recent kernel installed, but the machine is not under my control, so I dont get to decide when that happens. Thanks, Jim