[GLLUG] kswapd consuming mass quantities

[Mike Rambo]

Brad Fears wrote:
> 
> Once in awhile, our squid proxy server goes on the fritz and starts
> consuming large amounts of system resources.  Usually when this happens,
> a simple restart of the process will fix it, but on a few occasions,
> that doesn't fix the problem.  On those occasions, I've noticed that
> kswapd is consuming about 30-40% of my cpu, and doesn't seem to want to
> let go of it without a reboot.
> 
> I didn't find much of a reference to kswapd on google, so I'm wondering
> what it's used for, and how I can clear/restart it if this happens
> again.  My assumption would be that it has something to do with handling
> swap space, which would make sense that it goes on the fritz when squid
> does, since squid is a memory hog.
> 
> --Brad Fears
> 

FWIW, I have seen this complaint several times on the Mandrake list.
Those that seem in the know always state that there is no worry as it a
background process that only occurs during times of low system useage
(and one which will 'go away' if demand picks up). I don't recall ever
seeing a very thorough explanation of _what_ is actually happening
though...

Unless my memory is wrong it seems like Ben (Pfaff) had some comments on
this subject some months (or maybe a year) ago - perhaps check with him?


-- 
Mike Rambo
mrambo@lsd.k12.mi.us