because the error 'page allocation failure' if I have swap

SUSE Product Topics SLES Configure-Administer
1

Hello
In a SLES11 SP1 Linux bcs (kernel 2.6.32.12-0.7-xen x86_64), after noticing a server did not respond (ping or keyboard) to restart and see the log I see several:
swapper: page allocation failure. order: 1, mode: 0x20, alloc_flags: 0x30 pflags: 0x200042
rsync: page allocation failure. order: 1, mode: 0x20, alloc_flags: 0x30 pflags: 0x402140.

The computer was performing a BackupPC backup using desktop understand that “page allocation failure” is because I ran out of memory and the kernel kills processes … but the swap memory was free…

If the server because it had free swap “error page allocation failure”?
Is that normal? or am I looking at the wrong error?

thanks

Error messages 1: Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383818] The following is only an harmless informational message. Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383822] Unless you get a _continuous_flood_ of these messages it means Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383823] everything is working fine. Allocations from irqs cannot be Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383825] perfectly reliable and the kernel is designed to handle that. Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383826] rsync: page allocation failure. order:1, mode:0x20, alloc_flags:0x30 pflags:0x402140 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383829] Pid: 26016, comm: rsync Not tainted 2.6.32.12-0.7-xen #1 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383831] Call Trace: Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383844] [<ffffffff80009af5>] dump_trace+0x65/0x180 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383850] [<ffffffff8034f056>] dump_stack+0x69/0x73 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383855] [<ffffffff800a0749>] __alloc_pages_slowpath+0x479/0x500 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383859] [<ffffffff800a090a>] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x13a/0x140 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383862] [<ffffffff800ce4bb>] cache_grow+0x34b/0x440 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383865] [<ffffffff800ce80e>] cache_alloc_refill+0x25e/0x2a0 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383868] [<ffffffff800ceafc>] kmem_cache_alloc+0x11c/0x130 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383872] [<ffffffff802a2852>] sk_prot_alloc+0x42/0x150 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383875] [<ffffffff802a4484>] sk_clone+0x14/0x2c0 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383879] [<ffffffff802e6210>] inet_csk_clone+0x10/0xb0 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383884] [<ffffffff802fdcbd>] tcp_create_openreq_child+0x1d/0x3f0 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383887] [<ffffffff802fba43>] tcp_v4_syn_recv_sock+0x53/0x200 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383890] [<ffffffff802fdb3c>] tcp_check_req+0x2cc/0x430 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383893] [<ffffffff802fb7e7>] tcp_v4_hnd_req+0x67/0x130 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383895] [<ffffffff802fb9bb>] tcp_v4_do_rcv+0x10b/0x140 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383898] [<ffffffff802fd4e7>] tcp_v4_rcv+0x5a7/0x7b0 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383901] [<ffffffff802dbb01>] ip_local_deliver_finish+0x121/0x250 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383904] [<ffffffff802db239>] ip_rcv_finish+0x1b9/0x440 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383908] [<ffffffff802b027c>] netif_receive_skb+0x60c/0x6d0 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383921] [<ffffffffa02f3055>] tg3_rx+0x435/0x740 [tg3] Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383937] [<ffffffffa02f340d>] tg3_poll_work+0xad/0x180 [tg3] Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383947] [<ffffffffa02f353f>] tg3_poll+0x5f/0x230 [tg3] Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383955] [<ffffffff802b0c21>] net_rx_action+0x141/0x260 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383959] [<ffffffff80044bbe>] __do_softirq+0xde/0x1a0 Feb 7 07:01:52 PEPE kernel: [302678.383963] [<ffffffff8000800c>] call_softirq+0x1c/0x30 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383966] [<ffffffff80009635>] do_softirq+0xa5/0xe0 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383970] [<ffffffff80258912>] evtchn_do_upcall+0x212/0x2a0 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383974] [<ffffffff80007a6e>] do_hypervisor_callback+0x1e/0x30 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383984] [<000000000043d9a3>] 0x43d9a3 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383985] Mem-Info: Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383986] DMA per-cpu: Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383987] CPU 0: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383989] CPU 1: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383990] DMA32 per-cpu: Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383991] CPU 0: hi: 155, btch: 38 usd: 130 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383992] CPU 1: hi: 155, btch: 38 usd: 154 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383996] active_anon:63082 inactive_anon:43127 isolated_anon:0 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383996] active_file:150955 inactive_file:607703 isolated_file:33 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383997] unevictable:8 dirty:86831 writeback:23944 unstable:0 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383998] free:5630 slab_reclaimable:25451 slab_unreclaimable:9442 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.383998] mapped:6677 shmem:2439 pagetables:0 bounce:0 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.384002] DMA free:9284kB min:32kB low:40kB high:48kB active_anon:0kB inactive_anon:0kB active_file:0kB inactive_file:0kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isola ted(file):0kB present:16160kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:0kB shmem:0kB slab_reclaimable:0kB slab_unreclaimable:0kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:0kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback _tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? yes Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.384005] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 3717 3717 3717 Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.384011] DMA32 free:13388kB min:7784kB low:9728kB high:11676kB active_anon:252328kB inactive_anon:172508kB active_file:603820kB inactive_file:2430812kB unevictab le:32kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:3797372kB mlocked:32kB dirty:347324kB writeback:95776kB mapped:26708kB shmem:9756kB slab_reclaimable:101804kB slab_unreclaimable:37768kB kerne l_stack:2304kB pagetables:0kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no Feb 7 07:01:53 PEPE kernel: [302678.384014] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0 Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.384016] DMA: 1*4kB 2*8kB 1*16kB 1*32kB 2*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 2*4096kB = 9284kB Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.384021] DMA32: 2985*4kB 11*8kB 3*16kB 3*32kB 1*64kB 1*128kB 2*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 13388kB Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.384026] 761719 total pagecache pages Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.384028] 602 pages in swap cache Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.384029] Swap cache stats: add 3248, delete 2646, find 14418/14521 Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.384030] Free swap = 8376580kB Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.384031] Total swap = 8385888kB Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.386069] 971141 pages RAM Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.386069] 50944 pages reserved Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.386069] 394017 pages shared Feb 7 07:01:54 PEPE kernel: [302678.386069] 559034 pages non-shared

Error messages 2: Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772142] The following is only an harmless informational message. Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772145] Unless you get a _continuous_flood_ of these messages it means Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772147] everything is working fine. Allocations from irqs cannot be Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772148] perfectly reliable and the kernel is designed to handle that. Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772151] swapper: page allocation failure. order:1, mode:0x20, alloc_flags:0x30 pflags:0x200100 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772154] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.32.12-0.7-xen #1 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772156] Call Trace: Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772169] [<ffffffff80009af5>] dump_trace+0x65/0x180 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772176] [<ffffffff8034f056>] dump_stack+0x69/0x73 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772182] [<ffffffff800a0749>] __alloc_pages_slowpath+0x479/0x500 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772187] [<ffffffff800a090a>] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x13a/0x140 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772192] [<ffffffff800ce4bb>] cache_grow+0x34b/0x440 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772197] [<ffffffff800ce80e>] cache_alloc_refill+0x25e/0x2a0 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772201] [<ffffffff800ceafc>] kmem_cache_alloc+0x11c/0x130 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772206] [<ffffffff802a2852>] sk_prot_alloc+0x42/0x150 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772211] [<ffffffff802a4484>] sk_clone+0x14/0x2c0 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772216] [<ffffffff802e6210>] inet_csk_clone+0x10/0xb0 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772221] [<ffffffff802fdcbd>] tcp_create_openreq_child+0x1d/0x3f0 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772226] [<ffffffff802fba43>] tcp_v4_syn_recv_sock+0x53/0x200 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772230] [<ffffffff802fdb3c>] tcp_check_req+0x2cc/0x430 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772234] [<ffffffff802fb7e7>] tcp_v4_hnd_req+0x67/0x130 Feb 6 23:58:51 PEPE kernel: [277297.772238] [<ffffffff802fb9bb>] tcp_v4_do_rcv+0x10b/0x140 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772242] [<ffffffff802fd4e7>] tcp_v4_rcv+0x5a7/0x7b0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772247] [<ffffffff802dbb01>] ip_local_deliver_finish+0x121/0x250 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772251] [<ffffffff802db239>] ip_rcv_finish+0x1b9/0x440 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772256] [<ffffffff802b027c>] netif_receive_skb+0x60c/0x6d0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772269] [<ffffffffa02f3055>] tg3_rx+0x435/0x740 [tg3] Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772289] [<ffffffffa02f340d>] tg3_poll_work+0xad/0x180 [tg3] Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772304] [<ffffffffa02f353f>] tg3_poll+0x5f/0x230 [tg3] Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772317] [<ffffffff802b0c21>] net_rx_action+0x141/0x260 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772322] [<ffffffff80044bbe>] __do_softirq+0xde/0x1a0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772327] [<ffffffff8000800c>] call_softirq+0x1c/0x30 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772332] [<ffffffff80009635>] do_softirq+0xa5/0xe0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772336] [<ffffffff80258912>] evtchn_do_upcall+0x212/0x2a0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772341] [<ffffffff80007a6e>] do_hypervisor_callback+0x1e/0x30 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772352] [<ffffffff800033aa>] 0xffffffff800033aa Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772360] [<ffffffff8000a8f5>] xen_safe_halt+0x15/0x50 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772364] [<ffffffff8000dead>] xen_idle+0x5d/0x70 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772368] [<ffffffff800065cf>] cpu_idle+0x5f/0xa0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772374] [<ffffffff80639be5>] start_kernel+0x2b4/0x383 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772377] Mem-Info: Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772378] DMA per-cpu: Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772380] CPU 0: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772382] CPU 1: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772384] DMA32 per-cpu: Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772386] CPU 0: hi: 155, btch: 38 usd: 124 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772388] CPU 1: hi: 155, btch: 38 usd: 111 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772392] active_anon:62797 inactive_anon:40230 isolated_anon:0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772393] active_file:74550 inactive_file:689159 isolated_file:0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772394] unevictable:8 dirty:76 writeback:1 unstable:0 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772395] free:5206 slab_reclaimable:31745 slab_unreclaimable:6274 Feb 6 23:58:52 PEPE kernel: [277297.772396] mapped:6406 shmem:2439 pagetables:0 bounce:0 Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772401] DMA free:9284kB min:32kB low:40kB high:48kB active_anon:0kB inactive_anon:0kB active_file:0kB inactive_file:0kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:16160kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:0kB shmem:0kB slab_reclaimable:0kB slab_unre claimable:0kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:0kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? yes Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772406] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 3717 3717 3717 Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772413] DMA32 free:11540kB min:7784kB low:9728kB high:11676kB active_anon:251188kB inactive_anon:160920kB active_file:298200kB inactive_file:2756636kB unevictable:32kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:3797372kB mlocked:32kB dirty:304kB writeback:4kB mapped:25624kB shmem:9756kB slab_reclaimable:126980kB slab_unreclaimable:25096kB kernel_stack:2216kB pagetables:0kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772418] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0 Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772421] DMA: 1*4kB 2*8kB 1*16kB 1*32kB 2*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 2*4096kB = 9284kB Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772429] DMA32: 2539*4kB 3*8kB 3*16kB 3*32kB 1*64kB 1*128kB 2*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 11540kB Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772437] 766395 total pagecache pages Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772439] 247 pages in swap cache Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772440] Swap cache stats: add 2216, delete 1969, find 9208/9249 Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772442] Free swap = 8378452kB Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.772444] Total swap = 8385888kB Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.774275] 971141 pages RAM Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.774275] 50944 pages reserved Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.774275] 749484 pages shared Feb 6 23:58:53 PEPE kernel: [277297.774275] 203264 pages non-shared

2

Did you ever find a solution to this error?

The reason for asking is because I am seeing something looking like this error. System runs out of memory, when checking memory with top or free -m it shows 10XMB whereas the system normally has 48GB. Service of course fails to start because of this, a reboot solves it.
If extra information is needed I am of course happy to provide it.

3

Followup information:

[QUOTE]Kernel - 2.6.32.12-0.7-default
[ 205.544370] Pid: 4956, comm: modprobe Not tainted 2.6.32.12-0.7-default #1
[ 205.544371] Call Trace:
[ 205.544380] [] dump_trace+0x6c/0x2d0
[ 205.544385] [] dump_stack+0x69/0x71
[ 205.544390] [] __alloc_pages_slowpath+0x3ed/0x550
[ 205.544393] [] __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x13a/0x140
[ 205.544397] [] kmem_getpages+0x56/0x170
[ 205.544400] [] fallback_alloc+0x166/0x230
[ 205.544403] [] kmem_cache_alloc+0x192/0x1b0
[ 205.544405] [] kmem_cache_create+0x1e6/0x520
[ 205.544414] [] nfs_init_writepagecache+0x1f/0xb9 [nfs]
[ 205.544435] [] init_nfs_fs+0xfd/0x150 [nfs]
[ 205.544441] [] do_one_initcall+0x35/0x190
[ 205.544446] [] sys_init_module+0xe4/0x270
[ 205.544449] [] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b
[ 205.544453] [<00007feca5e5ff4a>] 0x7feca5e5ff4a[/QUOTE]