Re: [cobalt-security] kernel: VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for ... ?

[Michael Stauber <cobalt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Graeme,

> Not really a security-related question, however I'll answer it here anyway.

Yeah, I know, so many thanks for the pointers.

> As the syslog states, it's a kernel reported error. Basically the machine
> is so badly out of real RAM at that point that the kernel has started
> 'swapping agressively' but cannot free any more VM (virtual memory) pages
> for processes to start, hence the "do_try_to_free_pages failed" error. That
> means it's out of swap memory too.

Hmmm ... that explains why this usually happens over the weekend, when the 
vistor count skyrockets.

> There's two issues here:
> 1. your kernel has possibly flaky VM handling, but this is doubtful.

I go the latest one from Cobalt: 2.2.16C24III

> 2. something (scripts, sites, email) is hammering the system. This is more
> probable.

I fear so. I got just 41 sites on this machine, but I figure the daily 
traffic is between 3 and 5 Gig. Add in a couple of MySQL Databases, PHP and 
Perl-Scripts and there goes the memory right out of the window.

Ok, I'll max the machine out with memory and see how long that will be 
sufficient. 


-- 

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Michael Stauber

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