Message-ID: <3C1E1538.4000609@Lehigh.EDU>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 10:54:32 -0500
From: Jim Eshleman <jce0@Lehigh.EDU>
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To: Steve Lord <lord@sgi.com>
CC: Jason Allen <jallen@fnal.gov>, linux-xfs@oss.sgi.com
Subject: Re: 2.4.13 Mem Related Hangs
References: <3BE6C909.6070308@Lehigh.EDU>  <3BF14253.1060008@Lehigh.EDU> <1008256442.14210.0.camel@jen.americas.sgi.com>
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Steve Lord wrote:

> On Tue, 2001-11-13 at 09:54, Jim Eshleman wrote:
> 
>>>  FWIW me too, on an 8-way 8.5GB (64GB HIGHMEM enabled) IBM Netfinity 
>>>x370 (8500R) which functions as a production mail server.  I currently 
>>>run 2.4.9 with XFS and it stays up for about a week under heavy load. 
>>>2.4.13 lasted about 4 hours under light load until all memory was 
>>>consumed by cache then it became unresponsive.
>>>
>>>  2.4.13 on a 2-way 1GB (64GB HIGHMEM enabled) Netfinity x350 test box 
>>>with the same kernel config and XFS works fine even under stress, so 
>>>perhaps our problem is similar to the discussion on l-k "Google's mm 
>>>problems"...
>>>
>>
>>   Update: I'm unable to make 2.4.14 fail on the test box (running 
>>Cerberus, bonnie++ against two XFS volumes, and LTP simultaneously) but 
>>it melts-down just as 2.4.13 does on the big production box.  A short 
>>time after all memory is eaten by file cache, and under light load, the 
>>machine becomes unresponsive.  It took about five minutes to login at 
>>the console.  No error messages on the console or in syslog.  Here's 
>>some info, it's obvious in the vmstat output where the melt-down occurs:
>>
>>   kernel config: http://www.lehigh.edu/~jce0/2.4.14-config
>>   bootup messages: http://www.lehigh.edu/~jce0/2.4.14-messages
>>   vmstat 60 output: http://www.lehigh.edu/~jce0/2.4.14-vmstat
>>   ver_linux output: http://www.lehigh.edu/~jce0/ver_linux.out
>>
>>   This is linus 2.4.14 patched with linux-2.4.14-xfs-2001-11-06.patch 
>>and LVM 0.9.1_beta6, compiled with egcs-2.91.66.  It's a RH 7.1 system.
>>
>>   I know Andrea and Marcelo? were testing and fixing some HIGHMEM 
>>things.  Were there any patches and did they make it into the Linus tree?
>>
>>   Any assistance greatly appreciated.
>>
>>Jim
>>
>>
> 
> Going through my old email - I think I just fixed this - there was a bug
> in the delayed allocation handling in XFS which caused a memory leak
> due to a buffer_head reference count leak. The latest cvs tree (2.4.16
> based) has the fix in it.
> 
> This bug was introduced around the time the new VM showed up in 2.4.10.
> 
> Steve


   This would make my millennium.  I shall test as soon as a new 2.4.16 
patch set is available.  Or 2.4.17, whichever comes first :-)

   Thanks Steve.

Jim