topic Re: Automounter given error messages in Operating System - Linux

Automounter given error messages

Kaps_2 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:45:37 GMT

Hello Folks,

I found lots of error messages on the server configured with autofs.Please find below the snips from the messages file.

automount[27245]: mount(nfs): nfs: mount failure test.com:/xyz on /abc
kernel: cpu 2 cold: low 0, high 32, batch 16z
automount[27245]: failed to mount /xyz
kernel: cpu 3 hot: low 32, high 96, batch 16
kernel: cpu 3 cold: low 0, high 32, batch 16
kernel: Node 0 HighMem per-cpu: empty
automount[27264]: >> mount: Cannot allocate memory
kernel:
automount[27264]: mount(nfs): nfs: mount failure test.com:/abc on /rwx
kernel: Free pages: 20824kB (0kB HighMem)
automount[27264]: failed to mount /xyz
kernel: Active:367185 inactive:3456440 dirty:439593 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:5206 slab:245546 mapped:366021 pagetables:2120
kernel: Node 0 DMA free:11352kB min:0kB low:0kB high:0kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:16384kB pages_scanned:22113665 all_unreclaimabl
e? yes
kernel: protections[]: 0 0 0
kernel: Node 0 Normal free:9472kB min:4184kB low:8368kB high:12552kB active:1468740kB inactive:13825760kB present:17547260kB pages_scann
ed:0 all_unreclaimable? no
kernel: protections[]: 0 0 0
kernel: Node 0 HighMem free:0kB min:128kB low:256kB high:384kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
automount[27293]: >> mount: Cannot allocate memory

any body has any suggestion in resolving this issue?

Cheers,
Kaps

Re: Automounter given error messages

Matti_Kurkela — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:21:29 GMT

You've got automounter error messages mixed in with kernel "OOM killer" diagnostic messages. The automounter has tried to run the appropriate "mount" command and got the error message "mount: Cannot allocate memory".

The "OOM killer" diagnostics only appear when your system is critically low on memory, or if your RAM is so fragmented the OS cannot fulfill applications' memory requests any more.

The memory shortage/fragmentation problem is causing the automounter errors. The root cause is probably an application that is probably using a lot of memory, and might be suffering from memory (or other resource, like filehandle) leaks.

If the system still responds to commands, find the process using the most RAM, and then stop and restart it if possible. If that helps, monitor the memory usage of that process. (If possible, produce a graph of the memory usage over time.)

With a constant level of workload, the memory usage of any program should eventually stabilize at some level. But if the program keeps allocating more and more memory without any apparent limit, it probably contains a memory leak bug.

It would be best to get the bug fixed, but a common workaround is to schedule a periodic restart for the application that has a memory leak. That will allow the OS to reclaim the leaked memory before the situation becomes so bad the OS cannot work anymore and a reboot is required.

MK

Re: Automounter given error messages

Alzhy — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:05:58 GMT

What does "free" show? (avail memory low?)

How long have you had autofs running ?

What version of Linux?

Do you have the latest patches?

How much memory does your server have?

Re: Automounter given error messages

Kaps_2 — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:21:46 GMT

The server has 16GB of memory & its running
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4 (Nahant Update 4)

Re: Automounter given error messages

Alzhy — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:25:39 GMT

Then I suggest GO check if your version of autofs package is dated.

There are a number of autofs updates that mention memory leaks and other issues.

Surely you know how to check and have access to RHN for the latest patches?

Re: Automounter given error messages

Kaps_2 — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:40:33 GMT

thanks for the same.

Re: Automounter given error messages

Kaps_2 — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:05:32 GMT

However already updated autofs and nfsâ ¦.