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    Alert: Control Domain Memory Usage

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Solved Compute
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    • delafD Offline
      delaf @delaf
      last edited by

      @stormi @r1
      Four days later, I get:

      • one server (266) with alt-kernel: still no problem
      • one server (268) with 4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1: no more problem!
      • one server (272) with kmemleak kernel: no memleak detected, but the problem is present
      • one server (273) with search extra built-in weak-updates override updates: problem still present
      R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • stormiS Offline
        stormi Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team
        last edited by

        @delaf Excellent news, especially if you can replicate on another host to be sure.

        This thread is older than kernel-4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1 (especially in @dave's case), but it wouldn't be unlikely that several distinct memory leak causes exist.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • R Offline
          r1 XCP-ng Team @delaf
          last edited by

          @delaf said in Alert: Control Domain Memory Usage:

          one server (268) with 4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1: no more problem!

          Yeah, we need to be sure that this is a stable kernel and somewhere after this, the memory leak seems to have introduced.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • daveD Offline
            dave
            last edited by

            I currently have:

            top - 13:35:31 up 59 days, 17:11,  1 user,  load average: 0.43, 0.36, 0.34
            Tasks: 646 total,   1 running, 436 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
            %Cpu(s):  0.8 us,  1.1 sy,  0.0 ni, 97.5 id,  0.3 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.1 si,  0.2 st
            KiB Mem : 12205936 total,   149152 free, 10627080 used,  1429704 buff/cache
            KiB Swap:  1048572 total,  1048572 free,        0 used.  1153360 avail Mem
            
            
            top - 13:35:54 up 35 days, 17:29,  1 user,  load average: 0.54, 0.73, 0.77
            Tasks: 489 total,   1 running, 324 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
            %Cpu(s):  3.5 us,  3.4 sy,  0.0 ni, 92.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.4 st
            KiB Mem : 12207996 total,   155084 free,  9388032 used,  2664880 buff/cache
            KiB Swap:  1048572 total,  1048572 free,        0 used.  2394220 avail Mem
            
            

            both with:

            # uname -a
            Linux xs01 4.19.0+1 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 16:18:33 CEST 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
            # yum list installed | grep kernel
            kernel.x86_64                   4.19.19-6.0.11.1.xcpng8.1   @xcp-ng-updates
            
            

            shall i test something?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • U Offline
              umbradark
              last edited by

              I have a set of hosts on kernel-4.19.19-6.0.11.1.xcpng8.1 and I believe I'm hitting this as well. The OOM seems to kill openvswitch, which takes the host offline and in most cases, the VMs as well.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stormiS Offline
                stormi Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team
                last edited by

                So, the difference between 4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1 and 4.19.19-6.0.11.1.xcpng8.1 is two patches meant to reduce the performance overhead of the CROSSTalk vulnerability mitigations.

                So, assuming from @delaf's test results that one of those patches introduced the memory leak, I have built

                Now here are the tests that you can do:

                • Reproduce @delaf's findings by running kernel-4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1: no more memory leaks?
                • Test this kernel I built with patch 53 disabled: https://nextcloud.vates.fr/index.php/s/YXWCSEwo8SWkfAZ
                • Test this kernel I built with patch 62 disabled: https://nextcloud.vates.fr/index.php/s/arj5YfdrkjMKbBy

                If one of the patches is the cause of the memory leak, then one of the last two should still cause a memory leak and the other one not.

                delafD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • delafD Offline
                  delaf @stormi
                  last edited by delaf

                  @stormi I have installed the two kernels

                  272 ~]# yum list installed kernel | grep kernel
                  kernel.x86_64                   4.19.19-6.0.11.1.0.1.patch53disabled.xcpng8.1
                  
                  273 ~]# yum list installed kernel | grep kernel
                  kernel.x86_64                   4.19.19-6.0.11.1.0.1.patch62disabled.xcpng8.1
                  

                  I have removed the modification in /etc/modprobe.d/dist.conf on server 273.

                  We have to wait a little bit now 😉

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • stormiS Offline
                    stormi Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team
                    last edited by

                    FYI, the kernel with kmemleak support did detect something for a user who has a support ticket related to dom0 memory usage.

                    delafD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • delafD Offline
                      delaf @stormi
                      last edited by

                      @stormi For the kernel-4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1 test, i'm not sure it solve the problem because I get a small memory increase. We have to wait a bit more 😕

                      delafD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • delafD Offline
                        delaf @delaf
                        last edited by olivierlambert

                        @stormi

                        • server 266 with alt-kernel: still no problem.
                          Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 10.08.47.png

                        • server 268 with 4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1: the problem has begun some days ago after some stable days.
                          Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 10.03.57.png

                        • server 272 with 4.19.19-6.0.11.1.0.1.patch53disabled.xcpng8.1:
                          Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 10.05.47.png )

                        • server 273 with 4.19.19-6.0.11.1.0.1.patch62disabled.xcpng8.1:
                          Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 10.05.50.png

                        It seems that 4.19.19-6.0.11.1.0.1.patch62disabled.xcpng8.1 is more stable than 4.19.19-6.0.11.1.0.1.patch53disabled.xcpng8.1. But it is a but early to be sure.

                        delafD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • delafD Offline
                          delaf @delaf
                          last edited by delaf

                          @stormi @r1 server 273 with 4.19.19-6.0.11.1.0.1.patch62disabled.xcpng8.1 is still stable and 272 has the memory problem.

                          • 272
                            Screen Shot 2020-12-15 at 14.50.31.png

                          • 273
                            Screen Shot 2020-12-15 at 14.50.40.png

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stormiS Offline
                            stormi Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team
                            last edited by

                            Thanks. It looks like I'm doomed to see seemingly contradictory results for every kernel-related issue (this one, and an other one regarding network performance): you don't have any leaks without patch 62, but you had leaks with kernel 4.19.19-6.0.10.1.xcpng8.1 which doesn't have that patch either. So it's hard to conclude anything 😕

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • R Offline
                              rblvlvl
                              last edited by rblvlvl

                              Hey Guys,

                              we are facing the same issue with xcp 8.1.
                              We can't figure out what uses all this memory (8GB) or how to reduce it. Restarting the Toolstack did nothing and we can't afford a downtime because everything runs in production. Similar systems with same configurations don't show such a behavior.

                              I can provide you with some output from our system, maybe you can see something or help us finding a solution.

                              free -m

                                            total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
                              Mem:           7912        7595          82          33         234          62
                              Swap:          1023         216         807
                              

                              xl top

                                    NAME  STATE   CPU(sec) CPU(%)     MEM(k) MEM(%)  MAXMEM(k) MAXMEM(%) VCPUS NETS NETTX(k) NETRX(k) VBDS   VBD_OO    VBD_RD     VBD_WR   VBD_RSECT   VBD_WSECT SSID
                                Domain-0 -----r    7308446   52.1    8388608    3.1    8388608       3.1    16    0        0        0    0        0         0          0           0           0    0
                              

                              xe vm-param-list uuid | grep memory

                                                       memory-actual ( RO): 8589934592
                                                       memory-target ( RO): <unknown>
                                                     memory-overhead ( RO): 84934656
                                                   memory-static-max ( RW): 8589934592
                                                  memory-dynamic-max ( RW): 8589934592
                                                  memory-dynamic-min ( RW): 8589934592
                                                   memory-static-min ( RW): 8589934592
                                                              memory (MRO): <not in database>
                              

                              lsmod and grub.cfg
                              lsmod.txt
                              grub-cgf.txt

                              top output
                              Bildschirmfoto 2020-12-30 um 08.55.32.png

                              Tell me if you need more information or if you have any idea. Thanks.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • olivierlambertO Offline
                                olivierlambert Vates 🪐 Co-Founder CEO
                                last edited by

                                We need more details on the host.

                                1. Hardware detail (NICs, server model)
                                2. If all your hardware is fully BIOS/firmware up to date
                                3. The kind of storage used (iSCSI, FCoE, NFS?)

                                So far, we couldn't find a real common thing between people, and that's make hard to find the root cause.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • R Offline
                                  rblvlvl
                                  last edited by

                                  @olivierlambert

                                  It is a Dell PowerEdge R440 Version 2.6.3 with an LACP Bond and we use an NFS Storage.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • olivierlambertO Offline
                                    olivierlambert Vates 🪐 Co-Founder CEO
                                    last edited by

                                    That doesn't answer all my questions 😉

                                    R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • R Offline
                                      rblvlvl @olivierlambert
                                      last edited by

                                      @olivierlambert

                                      NIC:
                                      Intel(R) Ethernet 10G 2P X550-t Adapter

                                      driver: ixgbe
                                      version: 5.5.2
                                      firmware-version: 0x80000f32, 19.5.12
                                      

                                      RAID Controller:

                                      Product Name    : PERC H740P Adapter 
                                      Serial No       : 04B00V9
                                      FW Package Build: 50.9.4-3025
                                      
                                                          Mfg. Data
                                                      ================
                                      Mfg. Date       : 04/18/20
                                      Rework Date     : 04/18/20
                                      Revision No     : A03
                                      Battery FRU     : N/A
                                      
                                                      Image Versions in Flash:
                                                      ================
                                      Boot Block Version : 7.02.00.00-0021
                                      BIOS Version       : 7.09.02.1_0x07090301
                                      FW Version         : 5.093.00-2856
                                      NVDATA Version     : 5.0900.06-0034
                                      

                                      I know our hardware is not fully up to date, but for an update we need a timeframe, which can not be arranged that quickly.
                                      Maybe someone knows a temporary fix to reduce the usage of the dom0 memory until the updates can be made.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • olivierlambertO Offline
                                        olivierlambert Vates 🪐 Co-Founder CEO
                                        last edited by

                                        Thanks.

                                        If it's a kernel leak, there's nothing to do in user space.

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                                        • stormiS Offline
                                          stormi Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team
                                          last edited by

                                          Hi everyone.

                                          So, let's not give up, and let's try to find that hidden kernel leak and fix it!

                                          Let me summarize what we currently know. Correctly me if one of the statements is wrong for you:

                                          • It all started with XCP-ng 8.0 and still happens in XCP-ng 8.1
                                          • Memory is not used by user space processes. It's a kernel leak
                                          • We have fixed a rsyslog memory leak through updates, but it was a different issue. By the way, if you have memory that is eaten by a user space process, please open a new thread so that we stay focused on the kernel leak here.
                                          • Our alternate kernel, kernel-alt, is apparently not affected.
                                          • Most (all?) affected hosts have 10Gb interfaces
                                          • Many affected hosts are using iSCSI, though the last report (from @rblvlvl) is on a host with NFS storage
                                          • Some reports suggest that the more network intensive the load is, the quicker the memory usage grows.
                                          • Hosts with more VMs seem to see memory usage grow faster (may be related to the previous points)
                                          • At some point we thought that reverting to a previous kernel (without some security patches) had solved the issue, but after some time memory usage started to grow again
                                          • kmemleak did not detect obvious culprits, though @r1 has a lead regarding iscsi-related functions and we should still keep trying
                                          • Disabling the specific device drivers in favour of the built-in drivers in the kernel did not stop the leak

                                          Things that we don't know (tests welcome):

                                          • Is it affecting XCP-ng 8.2 too?
                                          • Is it affecting Citrix Hypervisor? It should since we use the same kernel and drivers (mostly), but this doesn't seem to be a known issue to them.

                                          Now, how to move on:

                                          • Getting our hands on an affected test server and being authorized to reboot it, change the kernel, etc., would help a lot, since we can't reproduce internally (@dave maybe? At some point you said you might provide one)
                                          • Reach out to kernel developers for advice?
                                          • If someone manages to reproduce on Citrix Hypervisor, raise the issue on their bugtracker too.
                                          • Check the kernel 4.19 history for memory leak fixes, especially those related to networking.

                                          Any other idea to move on is welcome, of course.

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                                          • stormiS Offline
                                            stormi Vates 🪐 XCP-ng Team
                                            last edited by

                                            Before I realized that not every affected host was using the ixgbe driver, contrarily to what I initially thought, I built an alternate driver from the latest sources from Intel.

                                            So, even if there's little hope that it will fix anything, here's how to install it (on XCP-ng 8.1 or 8.2):

                                            yum install intel-ixgbe-alt --enablerepo=xcp-ng-testing
                                            reboot
                                            
                                            stormiS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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