Kswapd0 process is using an incredibly high amount of CPU usage

friv · 02-10-2023, 09:02 AM

Because of kswapd0 command which appear in my Putty afte command "top" and eating CPU and RAM, my websites are going down for couple of minutes.

Did somebody have an idea how to stop that process?
Is there some script or command which i can execute in Putty to that finally can stop?

I have read a lot of solutions on internet about kswapd0 how to solve that step by step, but without success.

lvm_ · 02-10-2023, 12:27 PM

This process manages swapping, and if it is active it means that you don't have enough memory. You have either buy more RAM or tune your processes to use less of it. Decreasing vm.swappiness (temporary - using sysctl, permanently - in /etc/sysctl.conf) may have some effect too, but it is not magic.

friv · 02-10-2023, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lvm_

This process manages swapping, and if it is active it means that you don't have enough memory. You have either buy more RAM or tune your processes to use less of it. Decreasing vm.swappiness (temporary - using sysctl, permanently - in /etc/sysctl.conf) may have some effect too, but it is not magic.

Yes,i understand that i not have memory because of that process .But that is not due big traffic,that is i think malware which is injected in to my server for example crypto miners etc. So,the problem is how to find that malware and remove he.

friv · 02-10-2023, 02:53 PM

Yes,i know that i not have memory but that is not the case because of big traffic. I think this is a malware which is injected maybe for crypto mining or something else.
So,now i need to find solution how to remove that malware.

syg00 · 02-10-2023, 04:28 PM

If it is, and is any good it will be difficult to find. Have a read of this as an example of how sophisticated they can be.

lvm_ · 02-11-2023, 04:43 AM

Unexpected high CPU usage, yes, could be a sign of nefarious activity, high network traffic - also yes, high disk activity - maybe, but high memory usage - unlikely. It is, of course, easy and satisfying to blame all problems on unknown malware, but, even if it is the cause, first you'll have to make sure that all legitimate processes are properly configured and operate within configured parameters, and then you'll either spot a configuration issue or something unknown.

pan64 · 02-11-2023, 07:04 AM

kswapd itself is not a malware. If your host is infected you need to run a scanner to check it.
From the other hand probably kswapd is busy because your host is low on memory. Stopping this process may kill your system completely.

lesebas · 01-09-2024, 05:16 PM

This is a known bug unsolved for several years now.

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=110501

sundialsvcs · 01-10-2024, 03:29 PM

The "K" processes such as this one are a fundamental part of the kernel which run like processes. You cannot kill them, and you would not want to try.

lesebas · 01-11-2024, 02:13 AM

Hello,

Right you can not kill the process. However it seems that the mgkru function introduced in kernel 6.1 can solve the issue (I received an answer in this way oin kernel bugzilla thread : https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=110501#c39).

This should be activated : https://dev.to/archerallstars/enable...-oom-today-ji6.

I will try and see if it can helps.