]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/systemd.git/blame_incremental - man/systemd-oomd.service.xml
hwdb: Add mount matrix for Linx 1020
[thirdparty/systemd.git] / man / systemd-oomd.service.xml
... / ...
CommitLineData
1<?xml version='1.0'?>
2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
4<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
5
6<refentry id="systemd-oomd.service" conditional='ENABLE_OOMD'
7 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
8
9 <refentryinfo>
10 <title>systemd-oomd.service</title>
11 <productname>systemd</productname>
12 </refentryinfo>
13
14 <refmeta>
15 <refentrytitle>systemd-oomd.service</refentrytitle>
16 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
17 </refmeta>
18
19 <refnamediv>
20 <refname>systemd-oomd.service</refname>
21 <refname>systemd-oomd</refname>
22 <refpurpose>A userspace out-of-memory (OOM) killer</refpurpose>
23 </refnamediv>
24
25 <refsynopsisdiv>
26 <para><filename>systemd-oomd.service</filename></para>
27 <para><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-oomd</filename></para>
28 </refsynopsisdiv>
29
30 <refsect1>
31 <title>Description</title>
32
33 <para><command>systemd-oomd</command> is a system service that uses cgroups-v2 and pressure stall
34 information (PSI) to monitor and take corrective action before an OOM occurs in the kernel space.</para>
35
36 <para>You can enable monitoring and actions on units by setting <varname>ManagedOOMSwap=</varname> and
37 <varname>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</varname> in the unit configuration, see
38 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
39 <command>systemd-oomd</command> retrieves information about such units from <command>systemd</command>
40 when it starts and watches for subsequent changes.</para>
41
42 <para>Cgroups of units with <varname>ManagedOOMSwap=</varname> or
43 <varname>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</varname> set to <option>kill</option> will be monitored.
44 <command>systemd-oomd</command> periodically polls PSI statistics for the system and those cgroups to
45 decide when to take action. If the configured limits are exceeded, <command>systemd-oomd</command> will
46 select a cgroup to terminate, and send <constant>SIGKILL</constant> to all processes in it. Note that
47 only descendant cgroups are eligible candidates for killing; the unit with its property set to
48 <option>kill</option> is not a candidate (unless one of its ancestors set their property to
49 <option>kill</option>). Also only leaf cgroups and cgroups with <filename>memory.oom.group</filename> set
50 to <constant>1</constant> are eligible candidates; see <varname>OOMPolicy=</varname> in
51 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
52 </para>
53
54 <para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> can
55 be used to list monitored cgroups and pressure information.</para>
56
57 <para>See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomd.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
58 for more information about the configuration of this service.</para>
59 </refsect1>
60
61 <refsect1>
62 <title>System requirements and configuration</title>
63
64 <para>The system must be running systemd with a full unified cgroup hierarchy for the expected cgroups-v2 features.
65 Furthermore, memory accounting must be turned on for all units monitored by <command>systemd-oomd</command>.
66 The easiest way to turn on memory accounting is by ensuring the value for <varname>DefaultMemoryAccounting=</varname>
67 is set to <constant>true</constant> in
68 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
69
70 <para>The kernel must be compiled with PSI support. This is available in Linux 4.20 and above.</para>
71
72 <para>It is highly recommended for the system to have swap enabled for <command>systemd-oomd</command> to
73 function optimally. With swap enabled, the system spends enough time swapping pages to let
74 <command>systemd-oomd</command> react. Without swap, the system enters a livelocked state much more
75 quickly and may prevent <command>systemd-oomd</command> from responding in a reasonable amount of
76 time. See <ulink url="https://chrisdown.name/2018/01/02/in-defence-of-swap.html">"In defence of swap:
77 common misconceptions"</ulink> for more details on swap. Any swap-based actions on systems without swap
78 will be ignored. While <command>systemd-oomd</command> can perform pressure-based actions on such a
79 system, the pressure increases will be more abrupt and may require more tuning to get the desired
80 thresholds and behavior.</para>
81
82 <para>Be aware that if you intend to enable monitoring and actions on <filename>user.slice</filename>,
83 <filename>user-$UID.slice</filename>, or their ancestor cgroups, it is highly recommended that your
84 programs be managed by the systemd user manager to prevent running too many processes under the same
85 session scope (and thus avoid a situation where memory intensive tasks trigger
86 <command>systemd-oomd</command> to kill everything under the cgroup). If you're using a desktop
87 environment like GNOME or KDE, it already spawns many session components with the systemd user manager.
88 </para>
89 </refsect1>
90
91 <refsect1>
92 <title>Usage Recommendations</title>
93
94 <para><varname>ManagedOOMSwap=</varname> works with the system-wide swap values, so setting it on the root slice
95 <filename>-.slice</filename>, and allowing all descendant cgroups to be eligible candidates may make the most
96 sense.</para>
97
98 <para><varname>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</varname> tends to work better on the cgroups below the root
99 slice. For units which tend to have processes that are less latency sensitive (e.g.
100 <filename>system.slice</filename>), a higher limit like the default of 60% may be acceptable, as those
101 processes can usually ride out slowdowns caused by lack of memory without serious consequences. However,
102 something like <filename>user@$UID.service</filename> may prefer a much lower value like 40%.</para>
103 </refsect1>
104
105 <refsect1>
106 <title>Options</title>
107
108 <variablelist>
109 <varlistentry>
110 <term><option>--dry-run</option></term>
111
112 <listitem><para>Do a dry run of <command>systemd-oomd</command>: when a kill is triggered, print it
113 to the log instead of killing the cgroup.</para></listitem>
114 </varlistentry>
115 </variablelist>
116
117 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
118 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
119 </refsect1>
120
121 <refsect1>
122 <title>See Also</title>
123 <para>
124 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
125 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
126 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
127 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomd.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
128 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>oomctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
129 </para>
130 </refsect1>
131</refentry>