Dan Kirkpatrick <dkirk_at_suhep.phy.syr.edu> writes:
> P.S. I can't comment much on the "serious bus in the kernel memory
> allocation routine". That has been found by another university we
> collaborate with, and may or may not be specific to what they do.
There is a kernel memory leak in the handling of the credentials
structures used in process accounting, introduced in v4.0f PK2,
OSFPAT00011800440. According to Compaq, this bug only manifests
itself if you have process accounting enabled. The symptom is a
steady increase in kernel wired memory; when kernel wired memory hits
the limit (80% of physical memory, by default) various bad things
happen, and the system gradually grinds to a halt. How quickly this
happens depends on the rate of process creation and how much memory
you have--it took a few days on our software build systems (which
generate *lots* of process accounting records).
We couldn't say much while we were still working with Compaq on
identifying the problem and testing the fix. They have a fix now,
which is slated to be incorporated into the next patchkit. Compaq has
advised us that anyone needing the patch before then should contact
Compaq support services and refer to the "internal blitz" article
TD 2740.
--
Dan Riley dsr_at_mail.lns.cornell.edu
Wilson Lab, Cornell University <URL:http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~dsr/>
"History teaches us that days like this are best spent in bed"
Received on Tue Jan 11 2000 - 17:08:19 NZDT