This is from an upstream patch: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=e4fefbac6c5bcb0388d95e83801210e7d81a071b For some reason it missed being ported into RHEL5. Someone from support reported this bug and promised to open a bz for it. Since that hasn't happened, I'm opening one myself. The patch is trivial, but quite important.
Technical note added. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team. New Contents: Allocation of memory during the write system call can trigger memory reclaim. Without this patch, the VM may call back into the filesystem resulting in an oops. This problem is only seen in times of memory shortage on a node.
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release. Product Management has requested further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release for currently deployed products. This request is not yet committed for inclusion in an Update release.
Created attachment 394762 [details] Fix for RHEL5
*** Bug 565600 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
in kernel-2.6.18-190.el5 You can download this test kernel from http://people.redhat.com/jwilson/el5 Please update the appropriate value in the Verified field (cf_verified) to indicate this fix has been successfully verified. Include a comment with verification details.
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2010-0178.html