Bug 472002

Description of problem:

User-level applications that use a lot of memory (eg: 15% of RAM on an 8gig server) trigger the OOM killer, which in turn "takes out" arbitrary other processes which don't necessarily belong to the user.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

Bug has been present in all AS4 releases, and still exists.

How reproducible:

Always

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Run some user-level processes that use a lot of memory
2. Wait a while
3. Watch the OOM killer go wild.

A fast way to watch this is as follows:
A) Install AS4u7 with the "everything" option.
B) Install the vmware server 1.0.8 application (you can use any other application if you prefer - but vmware quickly demos the problem.  This bug is not related to the application you choose - you can pick something else besides vmware if you like)
C) Install AS4u7 on a virtual machine
D) Copy the virtual machine a few times
E) Boot 3 or 4 vm's at once

*) Note - the bug seems dependent on the amount of disk activity that has taken place prior to the RAM usage - suggesting the bug is someplace in the disk cache code.  Specifically - the OOM is more likley to occur, the longer your host has been running for (eg: days).
  
Actual results:

Random processes killed - usually resulting in a complete system crash

Expected results:

I expect the same results as I get under SuSE 10.3 - that is - it all works fine, without any bugs, errors, crashing, OOM issues, or anything else.

Additional info:

SuSE 10.3 works fine.
RedHat AS4 and AS5 both crash.
A few other Linux distributions also crash with OOM problems - I forget the names (sorry) - I stopped testing when I found SuSE to be 100% stable.