From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1424995AbWLCGSe (ORCPT ); Sun, 3 Dec 2006 01:18:34 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1424996AbWLCGSe (ORCPT ); Sun, 3 Dec 2006 01:18:34 -0500 Received: from ms-smtp-02.texas.rr.com ([24.93.47.41]:55492 "EHLO ms-smtp-02.texas.rr.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1424995AbWLCGSd (ORCPT ); Sun, 3 Dec 2006 01:18:33 -0500 Message-Id: <200612030618.kB36IMxU003340@ms-smtp-02.texas.rr.com> Reply-To: From: "Aucoin" To: , , , Subject: RE: la la la la ... swappiness Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 00:18:26 -0600 Organization: home MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353 Thread-Index: AccWopbH3gQk/oKlTd2nr0VLkKgi1QAACm3g X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2962 In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Reformatted as plain text. ________________________________________ From: Aucoin [mailto:Aucoin@Houston.RR.com] Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 12:17 AM To: 'akpm@osdl.org'; 'torvalds@osdl.org'; 'linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org'; 'clameter@sgi.com' Subject: la la la la ... swappiness I set swappiness to zero and it doesn't do what I want! I have a system that runs as a Linux based data server 24x7 and occasionally I need to apply an update or patch. It's a BIIIG patch to the tune of several hundred megabytes, let's say 600MB for a good round number. The server software itself runs on very tight memory boundaries, I've preallocated a large chunk of memory that is shared amongst several processes as a form of application cache, there is barely 15% spare memory floating around. The update is delivered to the server as a tar file. In order to minimize down time I untar this update and verify the contents landed correctly before switching over to the updated software. The problem is when I attempt to untar the payload disk I/O starts caching, the inactive page count reels wildly out of control, the system starts swapping, OOM fires and there goes my 4 9's uptime. My system just suffered a catastrophic failure because I can't control pagecache due to disk I/O. I need a pagecache throttle, what do you suggest?