Hi All, Can I please get your feedback on the following? rpciod is blocked: ------------------------------------------------------------ crash> bt 2507 PID: 2507 TASK: ffff88103691ab40 CPU: 14 COMMAND: "rpciod/14" #0 [ffff8810343bf2f0] schedule at ffffffff814dabd9 #1 [ffff8810343bf3b8] nfs_wait_bit_killable at ffffffffa038fc04 [nfs] #2 [ffff8810343bf3c8] __wait_on_bit at ffffffff814dbc2f #3 [ffff8810343bf418] out_of_line_wait_on_bit at ffffffff814dbcd8 #4 [ffff8810343bf488] nfs_commit_inode at ffffffffa039e0c1 [nfs] #5 [ffff8810343bf4f8] nfs_release_page at ffffffffa038bef6 [nfs] #6 [ffff8810343bf528] try_to_release_page at ffffffff8110c670 #7 [ffff8810343bf538] shrink_page_list.clone.0 at ffffffff81126271 #8 [ffff8810343bf668] shrink_inactive_list at ffffffff81126638 #9 [ffff8810343bf818] shrink_zone at ffffffff8112788f #10 [ffff8810343bf8c8] do_try_to_free_pages at ffffffff81127b1e #11 [ffff8810343bf958] try_to_free_pages at ffffffff8112812f #12 [ffff8810343bfa08] __alloc_pages_nodemask at ffffffff8111fdad #13 [ffff8810343bfb28] kmem_getpages at ffffffff81159942 #14 [ffff8810343bfb58] fallback_alloc at ffffffff8115a55a #15 [ffff8810343bfbd8] ____cache_alloc_node at ffffffff8115a2d9 #16 [ffff8810343bfc38] kmem_cache_alloc at ffffffff8115b09b #17 [ffff8810343bfc78] sk_prot_alloc at ffffffff81411808 #18 [ffff8810343bfcb8] sk_alloc at ffffffff8141197c #19 [ffff8810343bfce8] inet_create at ffffffff81483ba6 #20 [ffff8810343bfd38] __sock_create at ffffffff8140b4a7 #21 [ffff8810343bfd98] xs_create_sock at ffffffffa01f649b [sunrpc] #22 [ffff8810343bfdd8] xs_tcp_setup_socket at ffffffffa01f6965 [sunrpc] #23 [ffff8810343bfe38] worker_thread at ffffffff810887d0 #24 [ffff8810343bfee8] kthread at ffffffff8108dd96 #25 [ffff8810343bff48] kernel_thread at ffffffff8100c1ca ------------------------------------------------------------ nfs_release_page() gives kswapd process an exemption from being blocked. Should we do the same for rpciod. Otherwise rpciod could end up in a deadlock where it can not continue without freeing memory that will only become available when rpciod does its work: ------------------------------------------------------------ 479 /* 480 * Attempt to release the private state associated with a page 481 * - Called if either PG_private or PG_fscache is set on the page 482 * - Caller holds page lock 483 * - Return true (may release page) or false (may not) 484 */ 485 static int nfs_release_page(struct page *page, gfp_t gfp) 486 { 487 struct address_space *mapping = page->mapping; 488 489 dfprintk(PAGECACHE, "NFS: release_page(%p)\n", page); 490 491 /* Only do I/O if gfp is a superset of GFP_KERNEL */ 492 if (mapping && (gfp & GFP_KERNEL) == GFP_KERNEL) { 493 int how = FLUSH_SYNC; 494 495 /* Don't let kswapd deadlock waiting for OOM RPC calls */ 496 if (current_is_kswapd()) 497 how = 0; 498 nfs_commit_inode(mapping->host, how); 499 } 500 /* If PagePrivate() is set, then the page is not freeable */ 501 if (PagePrivate(page)) 502 return 0; 503 return nfs_fscache_release_page(page, gfp); 504 } ------------------------------------------------------------ Another option is to change the priority of the memory allocation: net/ipv4/af_inet.c ------------------------------------------------------------ 265 static int inet_create(struct net *net, struct socket *sock, int protocol, 266 int kern) 267 { ... 345 sk = sk_alloc(net, PF_INET, GFP_KERNEL, answer_prot); ------------------------------------------------------------ Considering this is generic net code, I assume the GFP_KERNEL will not be replaced with GFP_ATOMIC. NOTE, this is on RHEL 6.1 kernel 2.6.32-131.6.1 and apparently uses 'legacy' workqueue code. cya, # -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-nfs" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html