Re: "Out of Memory: Killed process" errors on server running Oracle

[Eric Sisler <esisler westminster lib co us>]

On Sun, 2007-07-22 at 12:52 +0200, wolf2k5 wrote:

> > "...This problem results from a change in the way the Linux version 2.6
> > kernel's OOM process killer works. In the version 2.4 kernel, the OOM
> > process killer killed the process that requested more memory than could
> > be provided. In version 2.6, this behavior changed so that the OOM
> > process killer kills the largest active process, regardless of the
> > process whose request exceeded available memory."
> 
> We're seeing the same issue on a RHEL4 host running VMware Server with
> several VMs.
> 
> Do you have the link to the VMware KB? What do they suggest to do?

The KB is a bit dated and references Fedora Core 3 & VMware Workstation,
but it seems to fit the symptoms:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?
md=displayKC&externalId=1669

There doesn't seem to be a good fix.  Their recommendation:
"...To prevent this from happening, you need to limit the number of
memory-intensive applications running concurrently with Workstation."

You can try searching the VMware forums & KBs for 'oom-kill'.  I've been
wading through them but haven't found a working solution yet.  Let me
know if you find one.  I may log this with VMware support and see what
they have to say.

In my opinion, a lightly-loaded dual quad-core / 16Gb host with plenty
of resources should *not* be experiencing this problem.  Our older
VMware hosts running RHEL 3 are much more reliable, I'm considering
rolling back to RHEL 3.  See my earlier post for details.

-Eric

-- 
Eric Sisler <esisler westminster lib co us>
Library Network Specialist
Westminster Public Library
Westminster, CO USA

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