UBC secondary parameters

User Beancounters Definition /proc/user_beancounters /proc/bc/ General information Units of measurement VSwap Parameters description Primary parameters numproc, numtcpsock, numothersock, vmguarpages Secondary parameters kmemsize, tcpsndbuf, tcprcvbuf, othersockbuf, dgramrcvbuf, oomguarpages, privvmpages Auxiliary parameters lockedpages, shmpages, physpages, numfile, numflock, numpty, numsiginfo, dcachesize, numiptent, swappages Internals User pages accounting RSS fractions accounting On-demand accounting UBC consistency Consistency formulae System-wide configuration vzubc(8) Configuration examples Basic Derived Intermediate configurations Tables List of parameters Parameter properties Consistency Config examples

Secondary (dependant) UBC parameters are directly connected to the primary ones and can't be configured arbitrarily.

kmemsize

Size of unswappable memory, allocated by the operating system kernel.

It includes all the kernel internal data structures associated with the Virtual Environment's processes, except the network buffers discussed below. These data structures reside in the first gigabyte of the computer's RAM, so called “low memory”.

This parameter is related to the number of processes (numproc). Each process consumes certain amount of kernel memory — 24 kilobytes at minimum, 30–60 KB typically. Very large processes may consume much more than that.

It is important to have a certain safety gap between the barrier and the limit of the kmemsize parameter (for example, 10%, as in UBC examples). Equal barrier and limit of the kmemsize parameter may lead to the situation where the kernel will need to kill Virtual Environment's applications to keep the kmemsize usage under the limit.

Kmemsize limits can't be set arbitrarily high. The total amount of kmemsize consumable by all Virtual Environments in the system plus the socket buffer space (see below) is limited by the hardware resources of the system. This total limit is discussed in “low memory”.

tcpsndbuf

The total size of buffers used to send data over TCP network connections. These socket buffers reside in “low memory”.

Tcpsndbuf parameter depends on number of TCP sockets (numtcpsock) and should allow for some minimal amount of socket buffer memory for each socket, as discussed in UBC consistency check:

$tcpsndbuf_{lim}-tcpsndbuf_{bar}\geq 2.5KB\cdot numtcpsock{\rm {.}}$

If this restriction is not satisfied, some network connections may silently stall, being unable to transmit data.

Setting high values for tcpsndbuf parameter may, but doesn't necessarily, increase performance of network communications. Note that, unlike most other parameters, hitting tcpsndbuf limits and failed socket buffer allocations do not have strong negative effect on the applications, but just reduce performance of network communications.

Tcpsndbuf limits can't be set arbitrarily high. The total amount of tcpsndbuf consumable by all Virtual Environments in the system plus the kmemsize and other socket buffers is limited by the hardware resources of the system. This total limit is discussed in “low memory”.

tcprcvbuf

The total size of buffers used to temporary store the data coming from TCP network connections. These socket buffers also reside in “low memory”.

Tcprcvbuf parameter depends on number of TCP sockets (numtcpsock) and should allow for some minimal amount of socket buffer memory for each socket, as discussed in UBC consistency check:

$tcprcvbuf_{lim}-tcprcvbuf_{bar}\geq 2.5KB\cdot numtcpsock{\rm {.}}$

If this restriction is not satisfied, some network connections may stall, being unable to receive data, and will be terminated after a couple of minutes.

Similarly to tcpsndbuf, setting high values for tcprcvbuf parameter may, but doesn't necessarily, increase performance of network communications. Hitting tcprcvbuf limits and failed socket buffer allocations do not have strong negative effect on the applications, but just reduce performance of network communications. However, staying above the barrier of tcprcvbuf parameter for a long time is less harmless than for tcpsndbuf. Long periods of exceeding the barrier may cause termination of some connections.

Tcprcvbuf limits can't be set arbitrarily high. The total amount of tcprcvbuf consumable by all Virtual Environments in the system plus the kmemsize and other socket buffers is limited by the hardware resources of the system. This total limit is discussed in “low memory”.

othersockbuf

The total size of buffers used by local (UNIX-domain) connections between processes inside the system (such as connections to a local database server) and send buffers of UDP and other datagram protocols.

Othersockbuf parameter depends on number of non-TCP sockets (numothersock).

Othersockbuf configuration should satisfy

$othersockbuf_{lim}-othersockbuf_{bar}\geq 2.5KB\cdot numothersock$

Increased limit for othersockbuf is necessary for high performance of communications through local (UNIX-domain) sockets. However, similarly to tcpsndbuf, hitting othersockbuf affects the communication performance only and does not affect the functionality.

Othersockbuf limits can't be set arbitrarily high. The total amount of othersockbuf consumable by all Virtual Environments in the system plus the kmemsize and other socket buffers is limited by the hardware resources of the system. This total limit is discussed in “low memory”.

dgramrcvbuf

The total size of buffers used to temporary store the incoming packets of UDP and other datagram protocols.

Dgramrcvbuf parameters depend on number of non-TCP sockets (numothersock).

Dgramrcvbuf limits usually don't need to be high. Only if the Virtual Environments needs to send and receive very large datagrams, the barriers for both othersockbuf and dgramrcvbuf parameters should be raised.

Hitting dgramrcvbuf means that some datagrams are dropped, which may or may not be important for application functionality. UDP is a protocol with not guaranteed delivery, so even if the buffers permit, the datagrams may be as well dropped later on any stage of the processing, and applications should be prepared for it.

Unlike other socket buffer parameters, for dgramrcvbuf the barrier should be set to the limit.

Dgramrcvbuf limits can't be set arbitrarily high. The total amount of dgramrcvbuf consumable by all Virtual Environments in the system plus the kmemsize and other socket buffers is limited by the hardware resources of the system. This total limit is discussed in “low memory”.

oomguarpages

FIXME

privvmpages

FIXME