Kernel memory usage grows by .1MB every 10 minutes. Why?
Kernel memory usage grows by .1MB every 10 minutes. Why?
- Subject: Kernel memory usage grows by .1MB every 10 minutes. Why?
- From: "Tom Arnold" <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 17:53:06 -0600
[Disclaimer: I'm no kernel hacker. I was an applications program for a dozen
years or so, but that was on the "old" MacOS and such. I have a little
knowledge of *nix systems, and no knowledge of kernels. It's possible that
this question is not even a kernel problem, but it seems to be something that
happening to the kernel task.
I've posted this question a few different ways on the OSX server list, and
really nobody had a good answer. Maybe someone here can give me a clue?}
On my OS X v10.2.6 server, I run a "top" command every 30 minutes and log it
to a file. I started doing this to debug a persistent crashing problem that
always occurs with a memory allocation panic. By logging "top" output in this
way, I've noticed that process 0, the kernel task, uses about .3MB more
physical memory every time, i.e., every 30 minutes. Does anyone have any idea
WHY this would be happening? Eventually it sucks up so much memory the machine
crashes. I called Apple and the support tech said "reformat your disk and
reinstall the OS". He said three general types of things could cause the
problem: bad
memory, network problems (how?) and a "corrupted" kernel (how and why?)
I have run the HW diagnostic from Apple and from TechTools, and the memory
chips show no problem. Is there any such thing as a virus that would do this
on Darwin/OSX?
I'm reluctant to format and reinstall because frankly, it's a pain in the
neck.
Interestingly, the virtual size of the process (VSIZE) does not necessarily
grow as this problem occurs. It's the RSIZE, the physical memory used, that
grows. for example:
PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 8:01.21 26 0 - - - 38.6M 411M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 8:15.29 26 0 - - - 38.8M 411M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 8:29.52 26 0 - - - 39.1M 411M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 8:44.24 26 0 - - - 39.4M 411M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 8:59.16 26 0 - - - 39.6M 411M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 9:28.26 26 0 - - - 39.8M 411M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 10:06.45 26 0 - - - 39.5M 410M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 10:47.56 26 0 - - - 39.7M 410M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 11:27.27 26 0 - - - 40.0M 410M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 12:07.59 26 0 - - - 40.2M 410M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 12:47.61 26 0 - - - 40.5M 409M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 13:26.85 26 0 - - - 40.7M 409M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 13:59.79 26 0 - - - 41.3M 409M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 14:35.32 26 0 - - - 41.5M 409M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 14:49.91 26 0 - - - 41.8M 409M
0 kernel_tas 0.0% 15:04.58 26 0 - - - 42.1M 409M
(the lines above were grep'ed from a log file and each line records the
status of the kermal task at 30 minute intervals, reported by "top")
The machine is a "Macintosh G4 Server" i.e., a tower w/ dual 1GHz processors
and the default 256 MB ram. I've been told that's too little ram, so I'm
adding another 512MB, which I suppose is a "good thing". But really, the thing
should not be crashing and unless I can find out why this task keeps growing,
I assume that my additional ram will just mean that, instead of crashing about
every 3 days, it crashes about every 9 days!
Thomas L. Arnold
Managing Partner, Summit Media Partners
Visit our web site at
http://www.summitmediapartners.com
_______________________________________________
darwin-kernel mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/darwin-kernel
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.