Out of Memory Process Kills Test

The Out of Memory Killer (OOM Killer) is a Linux kernel process that prevents the system from running out of memory. When the system is low on memory, the OOM Killer reviews all running processes and terminates one or more to free up memory. It decides which process to kill based on its oom_score, a value determined by the operating system. Monitoring this behavior is essential to prevent system-wide memory exhaustion, which can lead to instability or unresponsiveness.

Target of the test : A Linux system

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test :One set of results for the target host system being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to. By default, this is NULL.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Processes killed due to OS out-of-memory

Indicates the number of processes that were terminated by the operating system due to out-of-memory (OOM) conditions.

Number

This measure helps identify memory pressure events where the OOM Killer was triggered to free up memory.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure provides the Time stamp,Process ID,Process name,Total virtual memory(MB),Anonymous memory(MB), File backed memory(KB),Shared memory usage(KB),UserID,Page tables(MB), and OOM score adjustment.