oom-killer vs system not reachable
A system connected to a home dsl connection is unreachable from time
to time. The ssh session is locked. Starting a new session is not
possible. After some time (10 to 30 minutes) it will be possible to
log in again.
At first I felt it was caused by an unreliable internet connection.
During one of the incidents a local user was still able to
visit webpages (not 100% sure that the pages were not taken from the
browser cache).
However in the log files I find entries concerning oom-killer
events which I never saw before. My understanding of memory
management and kernel technicalities is not great. After googling
I am not able to determine if the connection problem and the
oom-killer might be related.
The system is running the 2.6.8 Debian kernel. It's a Pentium 4 with
1 GB RAM and 1GB swap.
Are those oom problems related to hardware, kernel or userland
software?
Can they be avoided?
Are these problems common or is it something that is particular to
our software/hardware setup?
The system is mainly used as a dropbox for a huge amount of mail.
Mutt is opening and working on a 1.5 GB mbox. Considering this
usage, should we apply special configuration or should a 'vanilla
system' be able to cope with this?
I am mostly concerned with the connection problems. Should I assume
that the two issues are related?
Regards,
Bob
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