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Network Information Services (NIS and NIS+) Guide


Troubleshooting System Resource Problems

This section describes problems having to do with lack of system resources such as insufficient memory or disk space. Symptoms appear as error messages with operative clauses such as:

"No memory"

"Out of disk space"

"Cannot [do something] with log"

"Unable to fork"

Insufficient Memory

Lack of sufficient memory or swap space on the system you are working with will cause a wide variety of NIS+ problems and error messages. As a short-term, temporary solution, try to free additional memory by killing unneeded windows and processes. If necessary, exit your windowing system and work from the terminal command line. If you still get messages indicating inadequate memory, you will have to install additional swap space or memory, or switch to a different system that has enough swap space or memory.

Under some circumstances, applications and processes may develop memory leaks and grow too large. you can check the current size of an application or process by running:

ps -el 

The sz (size) column shows the current memory size of each process. If necessary, compare the sizes with comparable processes and applications on a machine that is not having memory problems to see if any have grown too large.

Insufficient Disk Space

Lack of disk space will cause a variety of error messages. A common cause of insufficient disk space is failure to regularly remove tmp files and truncate log files. Log and tmp files grow steadily larger unless truncated. The speed at which these files grow varies from system to system and with the system state. Log files on a system that is working inefficiently or having namespace problems will grow very fast.

Note: If you are doing a lot of troubleshooting, check your log and /tmp files frequently. Truncate log files and remove /tmp files before lack of disk space creates additional problems. Also check the root directory and home directories for core files and delete them.

Truncate log files by regularly checkpointing your system. (Keep in mind that a checkpoint process may take some time and will slow down your system while it is being performed. Checkpointing also requires enough disk space to create a complete copy of the files before they are truncated.)

To checkpoint a system, run nisping -C.

Insufficient Processes

On a heavily loaded machine, it is possible that you could reach the maximum number of simultaneous processes that the machine is configured to handle. This causes messages with clauses like "unable to fork". The recommended method of handling this problem is to kill any unnecessary processes. If the problem persists, you can reconfigure the machine to handle more processes as described in your system administration documentation.


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