From: "Amir Hermelin" Subject: RE: nfsd and kswapd Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 12:15:34 +0200 Sender: nfs-admin@lists.sourceforge.net Message-ID: <004c01c44c78$5f789120$0200000a@CARTMAN> References: <1086596506.24334.9.camel@ikarus.inf.ethz.ch> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Cc: Return-path: Received: from sc8-sf-mx1-b.sourceforge.net ([10.3.1.11] helo=sc8-sf-mx1.sourceforge.net) by sc8-sf-list2.sourceforge.net with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BXGEM-0005sb-H1 for nfs@lists.sourceforge.net; Mon, 07 Jun 2004 02:15:46 -0700 Received: from enigma.barak.net.il ([212.150.48.101]) by sc8-sf-mx1.sourceforge.net with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BXGEL-0003RI-Hk for nfs@lists.sourceforge.net; Mon, 07 Jun 2004 02:15:45 -0700 To: "'Marc Schmitt'" In-Reply-To: <1086596506.24334.9.camel@ikarus.inf.ethz.ch> Errors-To: nfs-admin@lists.sourceforge.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: Discussion of NFS under Linux development, interoperability, and testing. List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: Thanks Marc for the info. It so happens I'm also using a PowerEdge = (2600), so I'll check out that thread. I'm using a RH 9 system, kernel 2.4.20-8 = - should that include the better mem management you've mentioned? -----Original Message----- From: Marc Schmitt [mailto:mschmitt@inf.ethz.ch]=20 Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 10:22 AM To: Amir Hermelin Cc: nfs@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [NFS] nfsd and kswapd Hi Amir, On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 00:46, Amir Hermelin wrote: > Hi, > I'm observing a strange phenomenon running nfsd on 2.4.20 (RH). I'm=20 > using a dual-Xeon server with 6GB of memory, and 40 nfsd threads=20 > running. Under very heavy load, after a while kswapd starts=20 > constantly occupying between 60-90% cpu, and every once in a while=20 > keventd also wakes up with some 10- 30% of its own. This obviously=20 > slows the system and greatly reduces the nfs performance. The=20 > strangest thing is, that when I reduce the memory to 512MB (with the=20 > mem boot option), kswapd seems to be getting a lot less CPU. >=20 > Any explanations on the matter would be greatly appreciated. Is that a RH 7.3 system? If so, make sure you're running kernel = 2.4.20-28 or later, it has the memory management of RH 9 backported and behaves much better in a setup like yours. There were many discussions about this on the Dell Linux PowerEdge list, = one thread started here: http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2003-May/024785.html One workaround is to disable swap, not sure if that's on option for you though. Depends on what you're running other than file serving. Greetings, Marc ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the new InstallShield X.