From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.7 required=3.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,FAKE_REPLY_A1,HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS,USER_AGENT_SANE_1 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 52CC4C433FF for ; Tue, 6 Aug 2019 19:43:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B2B520880 for ; Tue, 6 Aug 2019 19:43:47 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=georgianit.com header.i=@georgianit.com header.b="gxA/jrN0"; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=messagingengine.com header.i=@messagingengine.com header.b="DoFZ/4BD" Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1726169AbfHFTnq (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Aug 2019 15:43:46 -0400 Received: from out3-smtp.messagingengine.com ([66.111.4.27]:44515 "EHLO out3-smtp.messagingengine.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1725798AbfHFTnp (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Aug 2019 15:43:45 -0400 Received: from compute2.internal (compute2.nyi.internal [10.202.2.42]) by mailout.nyi.internal (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACAB521C7D for ; Tue, 6 Aug 2019 15:43:44 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mailfrontend1 ([10.202.2.162]) by compute2.internal (MEProxy); Tue, 06 Aug 2019 15:43:44 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=georgianit.com; h=to:from:subject:message-id:date:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; s=fm3; bh=ggnd4JMvzeolbg7dt8XtO6kAbn qVqIMDta4BC9xY/IU=; b=gxA/jrN0McRxMq1bFcxe01DnqXah+xNKrSbsBHOo7A EtQF0U7V8xzftR64eSf9rSqChPZSySE7n89eGp0+3Z0G956y+3F4KtsU82KEGxGe rJWeO9XNhhjaoaF8f3/E+FuUHAG+D/LsJc+eXa46cbZtzGykeLA78xIbR1FO4zcy K/gL99kpWjb0zR8yye7uCCIvjxeurNgyJjy8SiMEoGwVbnZ7sDT4ZnUCZdNKvhs4 pM330A0GqL4XDdC1pESCh6LYM3QRfgB5rjApvL8YCrLfZXDtTQJhUpj2o12QCUgG aEAI+qk3MEkt4dGVDSK/8caatOx143BFgloP24QaB+gQ== DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d= messagingengine.com; h=content-transfer-encoding:content-type :date:from:message-id:mime-version:subject:to:x-me-proxy :x-me-proxy:x-me-sender:x-me-sender:x-sasl-enc; s=fm3; bh=ggnd4J Mvzeolbg7dt8XtO6kAbnqVqIMDta4BC9xY/IU=; b=DoFZ/4BDBsNVV6uo28xBHg bz/4Kj3ntzQu1JpSOY0U2pEIvUjf18WgLIE/RmXglPp9qZPeo4ftQ6Nay2/TPrlO Gi9KW16WLkgzMpm685BR7OWnJTmCZDjznBqTg1Kwb6v4V8aCDPz7fZIqkIBmZJhA Fyt03JNPpMblmrF+quWcgZeXoz3k7C14otDxbGfUk0CFM5pPT/epnFyXHV0SulUU ogSfPOTAc1RUVRrdPcJyHBuaONBK8JOL95bNhiwW376YSto1GrMzZuDKD4RU5Z/d o5pAXnHuUo1Dy+tAwMNfnAuJtl9+hA+UjV2iKAb1bhnAqyWIH59SSllw9lzBKD6Q == X-ME-Sender: X-ME-Proxy-Cause: gggruggvucftvghtrhhoucdtuddrgeduvddruddutddgudeflecutefuodetggdotefrod ftvfcurfhrohhfihhlvgemucfhrghsthforghilhdpqfgfvfdpuffrtefokffrpgfnqfgh necuuegrihhlohhuthemuceftddtnecusecvtfgvtghiphhivghnthhsucdlqddutddtmd enucfjughrpefvhffukffffgggtgfgsehtjeertddtfeejnecuhfhrohhmpeftvghmihcu ifgruhhvihhnuceolhhkmhhlsehgvghorhhgihgrnhhithdrtghomheqnecukfhppedufe ehrddvfedrvdegiedrudefudenucfrrghrrghmpehmrghilhhfrhhomheplhhkmhhlsehg vghorhhgihgrnhhithdrtghomhenucevlhhushhtvghrufhiiigvpedt X-ME-Proxy: Received: from [10.0.0.6] (135-23-246-131.cpe.pppoe.ca [135.23.246.131]) by mail.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTPA id 42F3E8005C for ; Tue, 6 Aug 2019 15:43:44 -0400 (EDT) To: Linux Kernel Mailing List From: Remi Gauvin Subject: Re: Let's talk about the elephant in the room - the Linux kernel's inability to gracefully handle low memory pressure Message-ID: Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 15:43:43 -0400 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.2.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Sorry, I don't have the original message to reply to.. But to those interested, I have found a solution to the kernel's complete inability to allocate more memory when it needs to swap out. Increase the /proc/sys/vm/watermark_scale_factor from the default 10 to 500 It will make a huge difference, especially with swap on SSD, the kernel will swap out gracefully to allocate more memory, and you can get a few GB more memory in use before really noticing performance problems.