Re: [vserver] vservers and inodes

From: Tor Rune Skoglund <trs_at_sg.no>
Date: Wed 09 Jun 2010 - 13:57:56 BST
Message-ID: <AANLkTikz6JLDytPd0ccPjxoTJ5GySnc6dmB0H7k9QFGl@mail.gmail.com>

2010/6/8 Herbert Poetzl <herbert@13thfloor.at>:
> On Tue, Jun 08, 2010 at 03:59:01PM +0200, Tor Rune Skoglund wrote:
>> 2010/6/8, Herbert Poetzl <herbert@13thfloor.at>:
>> > On Tue, Jun 08, 2010 at 11:04:07AM +0200, Tor Rune Skoglund wrote:
>> >> 2010/6/7 Herbert Poetzl <herbert@13thfloor.at>:
>> >> > On Mon, Jun 07, 2010 at 12:02:16PM +0200, Tor Rune Skoglund wrote:
>> >> >> I've ran into a strange (possibly) inode problem within
>> >> >> one vserver. Althought df -i on the host shows that the
>> >> >> filesystem on which the vserser lives has IUse of only 1%,
>> >> >> we get "cannot create" errors on new files.
>
>> >> > cannot create is not necessarily an indication to running
>> >> > out of inodes ... could you please strace -fF one of those
>> >> > and provide the trace via some pastebin?
>
>> >> >> Having seen that there is a configuration option
>> >> >> for the maximum number of inodes dedicated to a vserver,
>> >> >> I have the following questions:
>
>> >> >> - What is the default limit when this option is not set?
>
>> >> > when the dlimit is unset, the number of inodes is unlimited
>
>> >> >> - What mechanism is used when checking and enforcing vserver
>> >> >>   inode limits?
>
>> >> > the kernel takes care of that
>
>> >> >> - The total number of inodes on the filesystem on which the
>> >> >>   vserver lives is 324350 at the moment.
>> >> >>   Could someone comment if is so high that special actions
>> >> >>   need to be taken?
>
>> >> > nope, I have several millions of inode in use, and except
>> >> > for a certain memory overhead (for the caches) there is no
>> >> > problem to be expected ....
>
>> >> >> - Could any other limit be causing the error? E.g. number of
>> >> >>   files limit or whatever?
>
>> >> > could be, strace will probably shed some light on that
>
>> >> At the bottom, there an extract of the important parts of
>> >> the strace result.
>
>> > please also provide the 'unimportant parts' :)
>
>> The whole output added as an attachement now.. :)
>
> hmm, strange ... the stat on the directory gives
> the expected ENOENT, but the mkdir then returns
> the same (which means that the directory above
> is missing ... but the previous mkdir succeeded)
>
>> >> We have also done some more testing of the
>> >> problem. I would like to add this to describe the setup:
>
>> >> * We have a vserver as a fileserver, running
>> >> samba 3.4.6. The host and fileserver are both
>> >> gentoo-based.
>
>> >> * The client, which in this case is a debian vserver on the
>> >> same host, mounts the fileserver share. Unzip/move operations
>> >> with large number of files fail as described.
>
>> >> * Another vserver client, but Gentoo based, on the same host
>> >> experiences the same problems.
>
>> >> * The client, when mounting another share, on another
>> >> computer, on which there is no vservers and special stuff,
>> >> gets the same problem with that share. I.e., it seems to
>> >> be related to the vserver client, and not the fileserver
>> >> vserver.
>
>> >> * However, on another plain host, Debian based (without
>> >> vserver patches) the unzip operation works fine with the
>> >> fileserver share (!)
>
>> > so, you are unpacking from a (zip) file on the share
>> > to a directory on the same share, as some user?
>
>> I'm not sure if the unpacked zip file is on the same share, but
>> it is at least unpacked to the share.
>
>> The user has also tried to unpack in locally in the
>> debian vserver (which works), and then tried to
>> mv it to the share (which fails).
>
>> As explained above, the strange thing is that the same
>> operations work when being done from debian (and ubuntu)
>> "physical" linux machines.
>
>> - Tor Rune
>
>> >> >> Here are some server facts:
>> >> >> * Gentoo vserver kernel, 2.6.32-vs2.3.0.36.28
>> >> >> * util-vserver 0.30.216_pre2883
>> >> >> * Filesystem ext3, default settings when formatting
>
> 2.6.32 is quite old, could you try with a more
> recent kernel and patch?
> (e.g. patch-2.6.32.15-vs2.3.0.36.29.4.diff)

It's a productions server, so I'll have to wait until the weekend.

In portage, there's a vserver-sources kernel with the name
vserver-sources-2.3.0.36.30.4-r1
What's your feelings on this one? Or should I
download a kernel.org kernel, and do the patching?

Best regards,
Tor Rune
Received on Wed Jun 9 13:58:59 2010

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