tarantool / tarantool/doc

[2pt] Consider to recommend disabling swap / overcommit

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Description

Recommend disabling certain system settings for memtx

Product: Tarantool
Audience/target: dev
Root document: https://www.tarantool.io/en/doc/latest/book/box/engines/memtx/#summary ? TBD
SME: @ Mons, @ Totktonada

Details

There is a gap in the docs. All of the following hasn't been documented yet:

  • It is best to disable the overcommit Linux kernel setting when using memtx. Overcommit leads to a runtime error. Overcommit documentation: see the sections on overcommit_kbytes, overcommit_memory, overcommit_ratio.
  • Using the swap mechanism may lead to lagging in some scenarios.
  • Swap + overcommit = huge lags.

@ Mons can provide information on how this works in practice, @ Totktonada knows well how it works in theory.


Original message from @ Totktonada:

Regarding swap: I guess fast fail (OOM killer) is much more wishful in the general case comparing to dramatically degraded performance (near to the level of full service unavailability).

Regarding sysctl vm.overcommit_memory: it is better to say that memtx_memory is incorrect on starting rather than be hit by the physical memory limit during work.

I guess @Mons can share experience of projects-in-production.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the memtx summary at the linked root document and review the referenced Linux overcommit documentation, especially overcommit_kbytes, overcommit_memory, and overcommit_ratio. Clarify the practical guidance with Mons and the theoretical behavior with Totktonada. Done means the docs accurately explain overcommit, swap, and their combined lag or failure risks.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux
Domain
documentation, operating-systems
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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