Paging Space Tips

Contents
About this document
Related documentation
Paging space considerations
Options for calculating paging space requirements
Things to consider when creating or enlarging paging space
Determining if more paging space is needed
Adding or increasing a paging space
Tuning paging space thresholds

About this document

This document contains tips for allocating paging space on the system. The information
contained in this document is valid for 4.3.X.

Related documentation

To obtain more information, see the AIX Performance Management Guide, available
online at:
http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/doc_link/en_US/a_doc_lib/aixbman/prftungd/toc.htm

The product documentation library is also available:

http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/resource/aix_resource/Pubs/index.html

Paging space considerations

The following can be found at:
http://9.53.35.177:80/techlib/manuals/adoclib/aixbman/baseadmn/toc.htm AIX Version
4.3 System Management Guide: Operating System and Devices Chapter 8. Paging Space
and Virtual Memory

The amount of paging space required depends on the types of activities performed on the
system. If paging space runs low, processes may be lost, and if paging space runs out, the
system may panic. When a paging-space low condition is detected, additional paging
space should be activated.

The system monitors the number of free paging space blocks and detects when a paging
space shortage exists. When the number of free paging space blocks falls below a
threshold known as the paging space warning level, the system sends the SIGDANGER
signal to all processes except the kprocs process. If the shortage continues, free paging
space blocks can fall below a second threshold known as the paging space kill level. In
this event, the SIGKILL signal is sent to processes that are major users of paging space
and do not have a signal handler for the SIGDANGER signal. (The default action for the
SIGDANGER signal is to ignore the signal.) The system continues sending SIGKILL
signals until the number of free paging space blocks is above the paging space kill level.

You can ensure the existence of sufficient paging space for processes that dynamically
allocate memory by monitoring the paging space levels with the psdanger subroutine or
by using special allocation routines. The disclaim subroutine can be used to prevent
processes from ending when the paging space kill level is reached. To do this, define a
signal handler for the SIGDANGER signal and release memory and paging space
resources allocated in the processes data and stack areas and in shared memory segments.

For more information on persistent and working segments, request The AIX Virtual
Memory Manager (VMM) document.

Options for calculating paging space requirements

Paging space requirements are unique for each system, depending on the applications that
are running, the number of active users, and other factors. With the appearance of large
amounts of RAM and database applications, previous paging space rules of thumb have
become invalid.

Option 1

Systems with large amounts of memory typically do not need large amounts of paging
space. In a persistent storage environment, where the system hosts a few small programs
and a large amount of data, the system may need less than one times (1X) its RAM size
for paging space. For example, a 100GB database server that runs on a system with 16GB
of RAM and uses only 2GB of working storage does not need 16GB, or even 8GB, of
paging space. Because the 100GB database is mostly persistent storage and requires little
or no paging space, it needs only the amount of paging space that allows all the working
storage to be paged out to disk.

Option 2

The 1X RAM rule is suggested for use with less than or equal to 4GB of RAM. However,
the paging space will have to be monitored during a period of heavy load to establish
whether the paging space size is sufficient. Check the npswarn value of the vmtune
command output and compare this value to the %used value of the lsps command output.
When the %used value is equivalent to the npswarn value, then SIGDANGER signals
are sent to processes. At this point, it is a good idea to increase or add another paging
space. The npswarn value is explained in the Tuning paging space thresholds section of
this document.

Option 3

For RAM sizes greater than 4GB, such as 16GB, 32GB or even 96GB, memory
requirements for applications would have to be researched in order to approximate the
recommended paging space sizes. When researching these memory requirements , keep
in mind how the paging space will be allocated, that is, deferred or late.

Things to consider when creating or enlarging paging

space
Before creating a new paging space or enlarging an existing paging space, consider the
following:

• If a disk drive containing an active hd6 paging space logical volume is removed
from the system, the system will crash.

• Do not put more than one paging space logical volume on a physical
volume.When you have paging spaces on multiple physical volumes, if you add
more than one paging space to one of the physical volumes, the paging activity is
no longer spread equally across the physical volumes.

• All processes started during the boot process are allocated paging space on the
default paging space logical volume (hd6). When additional paging space logical
volumes are activated, paging space is allocated in a "round robin" manner, in
4KB chunks.

• Avoid putting a paging space logical volume on the same physical volume as a
heavily active logical volume, such as that used by a database.

• It is not necessary to put a paging space logical volume on each physical volume.

• Make each paging space logical volume roughly equal in size.

• If paging spaces are of different sizes, and the smaller ones become full, paging
activity will no longer be spread across all of the physical volumes.

• Do not extend a paging space logical volume onto multiple physical volumes.

• For best system performance, put paging space logical volumes on physical
volumes that are each attached to a different disk controller.
 • Do not add paging space logical volumes to ESS, EMC or RAID arrays.

NOTE: If system is paging enough to cause an I/O bottleneck, tuning the location of the
paging space is not the answer.

In this case, please consult Chapter 7, "Monitoring and Tuning Memory Use of
Performance Management Guide", in the Performance Management Guide at this
location:

http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/doc_link/en_US/a_doc_lib/aixbman/prftungd/toc.htm

Determining if more paging space is needed

Allocating more paging space than necessary results in unused paging space that wastes
disk space. However, allocating too little paging space can result in one or more of the
avoidable symptoms listed below. Use the following guidelines for determining the
necessary paging space:

• Enlarge paging space if any of the following messages are displayed on the
console or in response to a command on any terminal:
INIT: Paging space is low
ksh: cannot fork no swap space
Not enough memory
Fork function failed
fork () system call failed
Unable to fork, too many processes
Fork failure - not enough memory available
Fork function not allowed. Not enough memory available.
Cannot fork: Not enough space
SIGKILL
• Add a paging space if the average of the %Used column in the output of the lsps -a
command is greater than 80.

• Add a paging space if the %Used column in the output of the lsps -s command is
greater than 80.

NOTE: Only extend a paging space as a last option.

Use the following commands to determine if you need to make changes regarding paging
space logical volumes:

iostat Check the tm_act field for the hdisk containing the paging space for a high
percentage relative to the other hdisks
vmstat Assure fr/sr columns of the vmstat page field do not consistently exceed the ratio
of 1:4.
lsps Use the -a flag to list all characteristics of all paging spaces. The size is given in
megabytes. Use the -s flag to list the summary characteristics of all paging
spaces. This information consists of the total paging space in megabytes and the
percentage of paging space currently assigned (used). If the -s flag is specified, all
other flags are ignored.

Adding or increasing a paging space

Follow these steps to add a paging space. Please note that the command output shown in
this example may differ from the command output on your system.

1. Check existing paging spaces and available physical volumes.

The following command lists characteristics for all existing paging spaces:

#lsps -a
Page Space Physical Volume Volume Group Size %Used
Active Auto Type
Paging02 hdisk2 rootvg 512MB 3 yes
yes lv
Paging01 hdisk3 testcase 512MB 3 yes
yes lv
Paging00 hdisk1 rootvg 512MB 2 yes
yes lv
Hd6 hdisk0 rootvg 512MB 3 yes
yes lv

The following command lists the available physical volumes:

#lspv
hdisk0 000336524e264c40 rootvg
hdisk1 00033652f9fe5c81 doomvg
hdisk2 00302593eb30798f none
hdisk3 00033652fa08edca testcase

2. Make sure the physical volume where the paging space will be assigned is part of
a volume group (check column 3). In this example, paging space can be created
on all hdisk?s, except hdisk2.

The following command displays detailed information about the physical volume
within a volume group where you plan to assign the paging space.

#lspv hdisk3
PHYSICAL VOLUME: hdisk3 VOLUME GROUP:
testcase
PV IDENTIFIER: 00033652fa08edca VG IDENTIFIER
0008508436f7d210
PV STATE: active
STALE PARTITIONS: 0 ALLOCATABLE: yes
PP SIZE: 8 megabyte(s) LOGICAL VOLUMES: 3
 TOTAL PPs: 268 (2144 megabytes) VG DESCRIPTORS: 2
FREE PPs: 201 (1608 megabytes)
USED PPs: 67 (536 megabytes)
FREE DISTRIBUTION: 00..00..00..00..07
USED DISTRIBUTION: 54..54..53..53..47

3. Make a note of the following items

PP SIZE: (8 megabyte(s) in this example)
FREE PPs: (201 (1608 megabytes) in this example)

4. Decide the size of the new paging space, remembering that keeping paging space
sizes equal improves system performance. This example creates a paging space of
512 MB. Use smittyfastpath to display the Volume Group name window.

Do one of the following:

#smitty mkps

OR

#smitty
>>System Storage Management
>>Logical Volume Manager
>>Paging Space
>>Add another paging space.

5. Choose the volume group name of which the physical volume is a part. The next
screen is displayed, with the SIZE of paging space field highlighted. This
value entered in this field is the number of logical partitions.

6. To calculate the # of logical partitions, divide the number of MBs to be created by

the PP SIZE value. This value equals the number of logical partitions. Enter this
number in the highlighted field.
7. # of logical = Prospective Paging Space Size in MBs
Partitions PP SIZE

8. Select the physical volume where you want to assign the new paging space. The
F4 key can be used to assist in selecting available physical volumes.

9. Using the Tab key, select yes for the option to start using this paging space now
and yes for the option to use this paging space each time the system is restarted.
Press the Enter key after selecting these two options.

10. Run the lsps -a command to compare the new paging space with any others on the
system.

o Make sure the value in both the Active and Auto columns is set to yes.
 o Verify that the value in the %Used column is at least 1%. The system uses
the paging space in a round robin fashion and %Used value increases over
time.

No reboot is required, and can you can complete this procedure on a production system.

Increase paging space

Follow these steps to increase the size of an existing paging space:

1. Determine the PP SIZE and FREE PP values for the disk where you want to
increase the paging space. Follow the instructions in Steps 1 through 3 of the
previous procedure.

2. Decide the number of megabytes by which you want to increase the paging space.

3. Divide the number of megabytes by the PP SIZE value to determine the

equivalent number of logical partitions needed to increase the paging space.

4. Use the following smitty fastpath command to display the dialog box for making
changes to an existing paging space:

smitty chps

5. Complete the entries on the dialog box as follows:

o Enter the number of logical partitions needed to increase the paging space
(as determined in Step 3).

o Set the value to yes in the Use this paging space each time the
system is RESTARTED? field.

6. Press Enter to execute the dialog.

7. Run the lsps -a command to verify the size of the paging space and to check that
the value in both the Active and Auto columns is set to yes.

Tuning paging space thresholds

For additional information, please Chapter 7, "Monitoring and Tuning Memory Use", in
the Performance Management Guide at this location:

http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/doc_link/en_US/a_doc_lib/aixbman/prftungd/toc.htm
If available paging space becomes depleted, the operating system attempts to release
resources as follows:

• First, by warning processes to release paging space

• Then, if there is still insufficient paging space for current process, by killing
processes.

The VMM uses the values of two parameters that specify the thresholds for sending
warning or kill signals to processes:

npswarn The value of this parameter specifies the paging space warning threshold, below
which warning signals are sent to processes.
npskill The value of this parameter specifies the paging space kill threshold, below
which kill signals are sent to certain processes.

Choosing npswarn and npskill settings

These values for the npswarn and npskill parameters are set by means of arguments to the
vmtune command:

vmtune
Parameter Description
flag
npswarn -w Specifies the number of free paging space pages at which the
operating system begins sending the SIGDANGER signal to
processes. If the npswarn threshold is reached and a process is
handling this signal, the process can choose to ignore the signal or
do some other action, such as exit or release memory by using the
disclaim() subroutine. The default value in operating system
version 4 is determined by the following formula:
npswarn = 4*npskill

The value of npswarn must be greater than zero and less than the
total number of paging space pages on the system. This parameter
can be changed by using the vmtune -w command.
npskill -k Specifies the number of free paging space pages at which the
operating system begins killing processes. If the npskill threshold is
reached, a SIGKILL signal is sent to the youngest process.
Processes that are handling SIGDANGER or processes that are
using the early page-space allocation (paging space is allocated as
soon as memory is requested) are exempt from being killed. The
formula to determine the default value of npskill is as follows:
npskill = number_of_paging_space_pages/128

The npskill value must be greater than zero and less than the total
 number of paging space pages on the system. This parameter can be
changed by using the vmtune -k command.

Example
Real memory = 16GB
Paging space = 4096MB
Convert paging space to 4KB pages.
4096MB *(1024KB/4KB)=1048576 4KB pages
npskill = number_of_paging_space_pages/128
= 1048576 pages/128
= 8192 pages
npswarn = 4*npskill
= 4*8192
= 32768 pages
Npskill % of paging space = ((1048576 - 8192)/1048576)*100
= 99.2
Npswarn % of paging space = ((1048576 - 32768)/1048576)*100
= 96.8
Example of a 8GB paging space:
Npskill % of paging space = ((2097152 - 16384)/2097152)*100
= 99.2
Npswarn % of paging space = ((2097152 - 65536)/2097152)*100
= 96.8
Example of a 16GB paging space:
Npskill % of paging space = ((4194304 - 32768)/4194304)*100
= 99.2
Npswarn % of paging space =((4194304 - 131072)/4194304)*100
= 96.8

The npswarn and npskill default value percentages for paging spaces of 4GB, 8GB and
16GB all are equivalent. Notice the npswarn default is 96.8%. This percentage translates
to the point at which the paging space usage percentage will send SIGDANGER signals
to marked processes. Then when the paging space usage percentage reaches 99.2, the
SIGKILL signal will sent to the youngest process. To gain more notice time, decrease
npswarn percentages to give a more advanced warning.

Other vmtune parameters

The following parameters are also set by arguments to the vmtune command:
vmtune
Parameter Description
flag
nokillroot -n By setting the nokillroot option to 1 with the command vmtune -n
1, processes owned by root will be exempt from being killed when
the npskill threshold is reached. This option is only available in
operating system version 4.3.3 and 4.3.3.1.
nokilluid -n By setting the nokilluid option to a nonzero value with the
command vmtune -n, user IDs lower than this value will be
 exempt from being killed because of low page-space conditions.
This option is only available in operating system version 4.3.3.2
and later.
For more information on the vmtune flags see Appendix G of the Performance
Management Guide, or request the 4FAX Ref: 1777 vmtune document.

Tuning the fork() retry interval parameter with schedtune

If a process cannot be forked due to a lack of paging-space pages, the scheduler retries
the fork five times. After each try, the scheduler delays for a default of 10 clock ticks.

The -f flag of the schedtune command specifies the number of clock ticks to wait before
retrying a failed fork() call. For example, if a fork() subroutine call fails because there is
not enough space available to create a new process, the system retries the call after
waiting the specified number of clock ticks. The default value is 10, and because there is
one clock tick every 10 ms, the system retries the fork() call every 100 ms.

If the paging space is only low due to brief, sporadic workload peaks, increasing the retry
interval might allow processes to delay long enough to be released. See the following
example:

# /usr/samples/kernel/schedtune -f 15

In this way, when the system retries the fork() call, there is a higher chance of success
because some processes might have finished their execution and, consequently, released
pages from paging space.