Since upgrading to s11b83a I noticed that gam_server processes eat significant amount of CPU cycles. So I decided to make some investigations.
# uname -a SunOS xeon 5.11 snv_83 i86pc i386 i86pc # pkginfo -l SUNWgamin PKGINST: SUNWgamin NAME: Library providing the FAM File Alteration Monitor API CATEGORY: GNOME2,application,JDS4 ARCH: i386 VERSION: 0.1.9,REV=110.0.4.2008.01.28.02.48 . . . # fgrep SUNWgamin /var/sadm/install/contents /usr/lib/gam_server f ... /usr/lib/libfam.so=libfam.so.0.0.0 s ... /usr/lib/libfam.so.0=libfam.so.0.0.0 s ... /usr/lib/libfam.so.0.0.0 f ... /usr/lib/libgamin-1.so=libgamin-1.so.0.1.9 s ... /usr/lib/libgamin-1.so.0=libgamin-1.so.0.1.9 s ... /usr/lib/libgamin-1.so.0.1.9 f ... /usr/lib/python2.4/vendor-packages/_gamin.so f ... /usr/lib/python2.4/vendor-packages/gamin.py f ...
No manuals, no config files.
# strings /usr/lib/gam_server . . . /.gaminrc /etc/gamin/mandatory_gaminrc /etc/gamin/gaminrc
From Gamin project page:
Gamin is a file and directory monitoring system defined to be a subset of the FAM (File Alteration Monitor) system. This is a service provided by a library which allows to detect when a file or a directory has been modified.
This is the description of the config file: Gamin config
Now, how to fix the problem
- Create /etc/gamin directory:
# mkdir /etc/gamin
- Create file /etc/gamin/gaminrc. It may contain the following lines (this is just an example, you can set your own polling intervals):
fsset nfs poll 15 fsset ufs poll 15 fsset lofs poll 15 fsset zfs poll 15
- Restart gam_server (let me know if there is a better way):
# pkill gam_server; rm -rf /tmp/gam_*
Voila! That should be done in all zones.
Update 2008-07-07 @00:06:24: i did not see this behaviour in snv_92. However, do not install snv_92 because of otehr bugs. Try snv_93.
Thanks for this. I’ve posted a link and the same procedure on my blog. I’d recommend the following minor changes for opensolaris 2008.05:
Step 2 should have the following additional line:
fsset zfs poll 15
Step 3 is more graceful if you don’t kill -9 and kill gam_server instead of fam_server:
pkill gam_server;rm -rf /tmp/gam_*
Thanks Bnitz! I’ve updated my post using your recommendations.
Thank you very much, at first glance, this appears to have worked very well.