FBSD 7.1 & kern.maxdsiz

[Drew Tomlinson]

Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 06:43:27AM -0800, Drew Tomlinson wrote:
>   
>> Mel wrote:
>>     
>>> On Wednesday 19 November 2008 15:06:54 Drew Tomlinson wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>>> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 04:10:55PM -0800, Drew Tomlinson wrote:
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Polytropon wrote:
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:34:32 -0800, Drew Tomlinson           
>>>>>>>               
>>> <drew at mykitchentable.net> wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>>>>>> The Urchin installation docs [...]
>>>>>>>> contain a note for FreeBSD users waring of a "hard coded process
>>>>>>>> datasiz limit of 500 MB" and instruct on to set
>>>>>>>> "kern.maxdsiz="1073741824"" in /boot/loader.conf.  However FBSD 7.1
>>>>>>>> doesn't appear to have this sysctl.  How can I do the equivalent of
>>>>>>>> this in FBSD 7.1?
>>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>>> Exactly, it is *not* a sysctl setting. It's a loader tunable, as
>>>>>>> I learned from this list some time ago. Don't search to find
>>>>>>> it in the sysctl list, you won't find it there. :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In FreeBSD 7 you should be able to set this setting using
>>>>>>> the file /boot/loader.conf. I think I had this setting on a
>>>>>>> FreeBSD 5 machine, I'll go and check.
>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> Thanks for your reply.  I guess I expected to be able to view it via
>>>>>> sysctl even though I understood it could only be changed with a reboot.
>>>>>> Is there some way to view the current setting?
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> Through sysctl.
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> OK, what am I missing?
>>>>
>>>> urchin# sysctl -a | grep maxdsiz
>>>> compat.ia32.maxdsiz: 536870912
>>>> compat.linux32.maxdsiz: 536870912
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> limits -H. Some loader tuneables aren't exported to sysctl.
>>>
>>> $ limits -Hd
>>> Resource limits (current):
>>>   datasize           786432 kB
>>>
>>> $ grep maxdsiz /boot/loader.conf
>>> kern.maxdsiz="768M"
>>>   
>>>       
>> Thanks for the explanation!  As pointed out by Pieter de Goeje, the  
>> default size in FBSD 7 amd 64 is 32 GB, confirmed with the limits  
>> command above.  Thus datasize does not appear to be my problem.  I'm  
>> shooting in the dark here as Urchin software support is non-existent.   
>> Are there any other tuneables related to datasize that I might try  
>> increasing?
>>     
>
> It would help greatly if you could explain what the problem is that
> you're trying to track down?
>   

I understand I'm asking for "magic".  I do not know the problem.  My 
employer's Internet group purchased a software called "Urchin" which 
appears to be a standalone version of Google Analytics for web site 
reporting.  I have been tasked with installing this software.  Supported 
OSs are Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows.  I chose FreeBSD 7 as I've been 
using it for my home network for years.  However I will be the first to 
admit that I do not really understand the internals.  I am just grateful 
that others that do understand have provided and support this OS for me.  :)

The Urchin software reports a "failed to allocate memory" error.  The 
sparse Urchin documentation noted above says this error is a known issue 
with FreeBSD and that kern.maxdsiz needs to be set at 1 GB to avoid.  
Because of help from the list, I learned that the default size in 64 bit 
FBSD is 32 GB.  Thus I didn't think this is my issue and was seeking any 
ideas of what else to look at that might be similar.  Mel gave me a 
great nudge that if Urchin is a 32 bit binary (which it is), then it is 
limited by compat.ia32.maxdsiz which is 500 MB by default.  I have set 
this to 1GB and so far, there have not been any further memory errors.

Many thanks to everyone for his/her help!

Cheers,

Drew

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