Re: Need help analyzing (kernel?) memory usage and reclaiming RAM (Debian Stretch)
Hello,
On Mon, Apr 15, 2019 at 07:03:13PM +0300, Reco wrote:
[...]
> What I suspect is happening here is runaway memory allocation by a
> kernel module (at least one of them), and said kernel module is likely
> to be VMWare-specific.
> It could be vmxnet3 (network). It could be that LSI kernel module or
> whatever they're using for SCSI these days (vmw_pvscsi?).
sounds interesting.
That would explain why I haven't seen this problem on one of my (few)
personal Stretch installations running as Xen DomU. But then, I guess
we're not the only ones who use Debian Stretch on VMware ESXi ;-)
but haven't found any mention of this problem. I wonder what makes our
setup so special ...
Yes, we're using vmw_pvscsi (VMware Paravirtual SCSI controller).
Here's the outout from lsmod:
msch@rad-wgv-srv01:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
tcp_diag 16384 0
inet_diag 20480 1 tcp_diag
ppdev 20480 0
vmw_balloon 20480 0
joydev 20480 0
evdev 24576 1
pcspkr 16384 0
serio_raw 16384 0
vmwgfx 237568 1
ttm 98304 1 vmwgfx
drm_kms_helper 155648 1 vmwgfx
sg 32768 0
drm 360448 4 vmwgfx,ttm,drm_kms_helper
shpchp 36864 0
parport_pc 28672 0
parport 49152 2 parport_pc,ppdev
ac 16384 0
button 16384 0
vmw_vsock_vmci_transport 28672 0
vsock 36864 1 vmw_vsock_vmci_transport
vmw_vmci 69632 2 vmw_balloon,vmw_vsock_vmci_transport
ip_tables 24576 0
x_tables 36864 1 ip_tables
autofs4 40960 2
ext4 585728 3
crc16 16384 1 ext4
jbd2 106496 1 ext4
crc32c_generic 16384 0
fscrypto 28672 1 ext4
ecb 16384 0
glue_helper 16384 0
lrw 16384 0
gf128mul 16384 1 lrw
ablk_helper 16384 0
cryptd 24576 1 ablk_helper
aes_x86_64 20480 0
mbcache 16384 4 ext4
dm_mod 118784 16
sr_mod 24576 0
cdrom 61440 1 sr_mod
sd_mod 49152 2
ata_generic 16384 0
crc32c_intel 24576 6
psmouse 135168 0
vmxnet3 61440 0
ata_piix 36864 0
vmw_pvscsi 24576 1
i2c_piix4 24576 0
libata 249856 2 ata_piix,ata_generic
scsi_mod 225280 5 sd_mod,libata,sr_mod,sg,vmw_pvscsi
floppy 69632 0
msch@rad-wgv-srv01:~$
Is there a way to show the memory consumed by each module? (besides the
'perf' tool you recommend below)
Would memory consumed by a module be released when the module is
unloaded? I guess so. Only I can't unload modules that are in use, of
course. Unloading vmw_balloon, vmw_vmci, and vmw_vsock_vmci_transport
didn't help.
> And that means - 'perf top', or better yet - 'perf record'.
I have never used perf before, will look into it.
Thanks a lot for your insight!
Martin
--
Martin Schwarz * Karlsruhe, Germany * http://kuroi.de/
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