Linux server is only using 60% of memory, then swapping
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Kamil Kisiel
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Published on 2009-06-08T21:22:16Z
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2014/08/23
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I've got a Linux server that's running our bacula backup system. The machine is grinding like mad because it's going heavy in to swap. The problem is, it's only using 60% of its physical memory!
Here's the output from free -m:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3949 2356 1593 0 0 1
-/+ buffers/cache: 2354 1595
Swap: 7629 1804 5824
and some sample output from vmstat 1:
procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- -----cpu------
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa st
0 2 1843536 1634512 0 4188 54 13 2524 666 2 1 1 1 89 9 0
1 11 1845916 1640724 0 388 2700 4816 221880 4879 14409 170721 4 3 63 30 0
0 9 1846096 1643952 0 0 4956 756 174832 804 12357 159306 3 4 63 30 0
0 11 1846104 1643532 0 0 4916 540 174320 580 10609 139960 3 4 64 29 0
0 4 1846084 1640272 0 2336 4080 524 140408 548 9331 118287 3 4 63 30 0
0 8 1846104 1642096 0 1488 2940 432 102516 457 7023 82230 2 4 65 29 0
0 5 1846104 1642268 0 1276 3704 452 126520 452 9494 119612 3 5 65 27 0
3 12 1846104 1641528 0 328 6092 608 187776 636 8269 113059 4 3 64 29 0
2 2 1846084 1640960 0 724 5948 0 111480 0 7751 116370 4 4 63 29 0
0 4 1846100 1641484 0 404 4144 1476 125760 1500 10668 105358 2 3 71 25 0
0 13 1846104 1641932 0 0 5872 828 153808 840 10518 128447 3 4 70 22 0
0 8 1846096 1639172 0 3164 3556 556 74884 580 5082 65362 2 2 73 23 0
1 4 1846080 1638676 0 396 4512 28 50928 44 2672 38277 2 2 80 16 0
0 3 1846080 1628808 0 7132 2636 0 28004 8 1358 14090 0 1 78 20 0
0 2 1844728 1618552 0 11140 7680 0 12740 8 763 2245 0 0 82 18 0
0 2 1837764 1532056 0 101504 2952 0 95644 24 802 3817 0 1 87 12 0
0 11 1842092 1633324 0 4416 1748 10900 143144 11024 6279 134442 3 3 70 24 0
2 6 1846104 1642756 0 0 4768 468 78752 468 4672 60141 2 2 76 20 0
1 12 1846104 1640792 0 236 4752 440 140712 464 7614 99593 3 5 58 34 0
0 3 1846084 1630368 0 6316 5104 0 20336 0 1703 22424 1 1 72 26 0
2 17 1846104 1638332 0 3168 4080 1720 211960 1744 11977 155886 3 4 65 28 0
1 10 1846104 1640800 0 132 4488 556 126016 584 8016 106368 3 4 63 29 0
0 14 1846104 1639740 0 2248 3436 428 114188 452 7030 92418 3 3 59 35 0
1 6 1846096 1639504 0 1932 5500 436 141412 460 8261 112210 4 4 63 29 0
0 10 1846104 1640164 0 3052 4028 448 147684 472 7366 109554 4 4 61 30 0
0 10 1846100 1641040 0 2332 4952 632 147452 664 8767 118384 3 4 63 30 0
4 8 1846084 1641092 0 664 4948 276 152264 292 6448 98813 5 5 62 28 0
Furthermore, the output of top sorted by CPU time seems to support the theory that swap is what's bogging down the system:
top - 09:05:32 up 37 days, 23:24, 1 user, load average: 9.75, 8.24, 7.12
Tasks: 173 total, 1 running, 172 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 1.6%us, 1.4%sy, 0.0%ni, 76.1%id, 20.6%wa, 0.1%hi, 0.2%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 4044632k total, 2405628k used, 1639004k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 7812492k total, 1851852k used, 5960640k free, 436k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ TIME COMMAND
4174 root 17 0 63156 176 56 S 8 0.0 2138:52 35,38 bacula-fd
4185 root 17 0 63352 284 104 S 6 0.0 1709:25 28,29 bacula-sd
240 root 15 0 0 0 0 D 3 0.0 831:55.19 831:55 kswapd0
2852 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 1 0.0 126:35.59 126:35 xfsbufd
2849 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 119:50.94 119:50 xfsbufd
1364 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 117:05.39 117:05 xfsbufd
21 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 1 0.0 48:03.44 48:03 events/3
6940 postgres 16 0 43596 8 8 S 0 0.0 46:50.35 46:50 postmaster
1342 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 23:14.34 23:14 xfsdatad/4
5415 root 17 0 1770m 108 48 S 0 0.0 15:03.74 15:03 bacula-dir
23 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 13:09.71 13:09 events/5
5604 root 17 0 1216m 500 200 S 0 0.0 12:38.20 12:38 java
5552 root 16 0 1194m 580 248 S 0 0.0 11:58.00 11:58 java
Here's the same sorted by virtual memory image size:
top - 09:08:32 up 37 days, 23:27, 1 user, load average: 8.43, 8.26, 7.32
Tasks: 173 total, 1 running, 172 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 3.6%us, 3.4%sy, 0.0%ni, 62.2%id, 30.2%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.3%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 4044632k total, 2404212k used, 1640420k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 7812492k total, 1852548k used, 5959944k free, 100k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ TIME COMMAND
5415 root 17 0 1770m 56 44 S 0 0.0 15:03.78 15:03 bacula-dir
5604 root 17 0 1216m 492 200 S 0 0.0 12:38.30 12:38 java
5552 root 16 0 1194m 476 200 S 0 0.0 11:58.20 11:58 java
4598 root 16 0 117m 44 44 S 0 0.0 0:13.37 0:13 eventmond
9614 gdm 16 0 93188 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.30 0:00 gdmgreeter
5527 root 17 0 78716 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.30 0:00 gdm
4185 root 17 0 63352 284 104 S 20 0.0 1709:52 28,29 bacula-sd
4174 root 17 0 63156 208 88 S 24 0.0 2139:25 35,39 bacula-fd
10849 postgres 18 0 54740 216 108 D 0 0.0 0:31.40 0:31 postmaster
6661 postgres 17 0 49432 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:03.50 0:03 postmaster
5507 root 15 0 47980 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 0:00 gdm
6940 postgres 16 0 43596 16 16 S 0 0.0 46:51.39 46:51 postmaster
5304 postgres 16 0 40580 132 88 S 0 0.0 6:21.79 6:21 postmaster
5301 postgres 17 0 40448 24 24 S 0 0.0 0:32.17 0:32 postmaster
11280 root 16 0 40288 28 28 S 0 0.0 0:00.11 0:00 sshd
5534 root 17 0 37580 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:56.18 0:56 X
30870 root 30 15 31668 28 28 S 0 0.0 1:13.38 1:13 snmpd
5305 postgres 17 0 30628 16 16 S 0 0.0 0:11.60 0:11 postmaster
27403 postfix 17 0 30248 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:02.76 0:02 qmgr
10815 postfix 15 0 30208 16 16 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 0:00 pickup
5306 postgres 16 0 29760 20 20 S 0 0.0 0:52.89 0:52 postmaster
5302 postgres 17 0 29628 64 32 S 0 0.0 1:00.64 1:00 postmaster
I've tried tuning the swappiness kernel parameter to both high and low values, but nothing appears to change the behavior here. I'm at a loss to figure out what's going on. How can I find out what's causing this?
Update: The system is a fully 64-bit system, so there should be no question of memory limitations due to 32-bit issues.
Update2: As I mentioned in the original question, I've already tried tuning swappiness to all sorts of values, including 0. The result is always the same, with approximately 1.6 GB of memory remaining unused.
Update3: Added top output to the above info.
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