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Conference turris::digital_unix

Title:DIGITAL UNIX(FORMERLY KNOWN AS DEC OSF/1)
Notice:Welcome to the Digital UNIX Conference
Moderator:SMURF::DENHAM
Created:Thu Mar 16 1995
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:10068
Total number of notes:35879

9846.0. "swap space allocation" by LEXS01::GINGER (Ron Ginger) Thu May 15 1997 17:44

    We are starting to run out of swap space. It appears this happened
    after a new version of SAP was installed, but the SAP guys have asked
    for tools to show the swap allocation so we can track down which
    process is using it. 
    
    What tools exist to show the allocation of swap space? 
    
    This is happening to both 3.2g and v.0b systems.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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9846.1Try psINDYX::ramRam Rao, PBPGINFWMYFri May 16 1997 10:063
I would use "ps auxww" and look at the VSZ column.

Ram
9846.2LEXS01::GINGERRon GingerFri May 16 1997 14:2514
    In SAP each process is using a big (300mb+) shared area. So the VSZ
    shows all the processes as over 800M. Surely we dont allocate swap
    space for the shared area, do we?
    
    If I understand the eager allocation, at the time we start a process we
    pre-allocate some swap space for its use. Of course, we dont know how
    large the VSZ will get as that job maps shared memory, or as it
    malloc's memory. So we must allocate some small ammount, and that must
    grow as needed.
    
    Is there anything I can read that gives a good explanation of the
    alloction and management of swap space? Something outside the source
    code, since I dont have access to source.
    
9846.3NNTPD::"[email protected]"Shashi MangalatSat May 17 1997 01:4525
>Surely we dont allocate swap
>space for the shared area, do we?

We do!,  but only once.

>If I understand the eager allocation, at the time we start a process we
>pre-allocate some swap space for its use. Of course, we dont know how
>large the VSZ will get as that job maps shared memory, or as it
>malloc's memory. So we must allocate some small ammount, and that must
>grow as needed.
                   
Under eager swap allocation mode, the swap space is "reserved" any time
virtual mmeory is allocated.  There is no pre-allocation.  Swap space
is "used" when a pageout occurs.  Prior to V4.0, "reserve" implies "use"
as actual disk blocks are allocated.

You may find the cda tool useful in determining swap usage.  You can get
a copy from the URL:
        http://www.zk3.dec.com/~shashi/cda.html
 
The command to use is "kps -o", which will list the swap usage of all
processes.

--shashi
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