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/