How to increase the available lockable memory on HP-UX 11i v3
Abstract
It was a common practice on HP-UX 11i v1 and HP-UX 11i v2 to disable pseudo-swap to increase the total available lockable memory of the system. Third party products, like Informix and Oracle Database may require large portions of lockable memory when creating locked shared memory segments to ensure that physical memory is never page-out. This usage requires 1:1 to 1:2 physical to swap device relationship to ensure process reservation is performed correctly.
HP-UX 11i v3, with the introduction of the Unified File Cache, not longer provides the ability to disable pseudo swap. The swapmem_on kernel parameter is deprecated in this release.
Instead, the undocumented lockable_mem_pct kernel parameter can be used in combination with filecache_min and filecache_max to increase the total available lockable memory of the system, as done as a prerequisite of configuration HPVM 4.x Hosts.
Increasing available Lockable Memory
A standard HP-UX 11i v3 with 12 GB of memory using standard kernel configuration will provided a little below 70% of it's memory lockable (5763608 / 8383040 * 100 = 68.75%).
# grep available /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log Oct 21 06:21:31 cloud vmunix: Physical: 8383040 Kbytes, lockable: 5763608 Kbytes, available: 6595768 Kbytes
Configure the HP-UX 11i v3 system following the recomendations for Integrity Virtual Machine Hosts.
| Parameter | Default Value | Modified Value |
| base_pagesize | 4 | 64 |
| filecache_max | 50% | 1% |
| filecache_min | 5% | 1% |
| lcpu_attr | 0 | 0 |
| lockable_mem_pct | 90% | 99% |
| maxdsiz_64bit | 4294967296 | 34359738368 |
# kctune -C "Increase Lockable Memory" \
filecache_max=1% \
filecache_min=1% \
lockable_mem_pct=99% \
maxdsiz_64bit=34359738368
==> Update the automatic 'backup' configuration first? y
* The automatic 'backup' configuration has been updated.
* Future operations will update the backup without prompting.
NOTE: The requested changes could not be applied to the currently
running system, for the following reasons:
- Requested value of lockable_mem_pct rolled back
- The requested value of lockable_mem_pct is invalid
* The requested changes have been saved, and will take effect at
next boot.
After reboot with the new configuration, the system provided 81.35% (6820076 / 8383040 * 100) as lockable memory.
# grep available /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log Oct 21 06:21:31 cloud vmunix: Physical: 8383040 Kbytes, lockable: 6820076 Kbytes, available: 6995068 Kbytes
Keep in mind that the kernel takes its own dynamic memory areas from lockable memory, so the system will never really offer 99% availability of the total physical memory.
Increasing the lockable_mem_pct parameter, extends the initial pool of lockable memory before assigning the resources to the kernel and its dynamic structures.
- Note: Reducing the UFC to only 1% of the total physical memory may negative impact system which storage subsystem does not offer it's one memory cache, like fibre or parallel SCSI JBODs. Balance the need for UFC with the lockable memory requirements of your system.
Reference
- SAW: HP-UX 11i v3 - Increasing the available lockable memory
- WFM: 4605297170
- HP Integrity Virtual Machines Version 4.1 Installation, Configuration, and Administration > Chapter 2 Installing Integrity VM - Installation Procedure for New Installations
- HP Integrity Virtual Machines Version 4.0 Installation, Configuration, and Administration > Chapter 2 Installing Integrity VM - Installation Procedure for New Installations
