CSE398:SystemAdministration

ControllingProcesses

Spring2004

Componentsofaprocess

Lifecycleofaprocess

Signals

Sendsignalsusingkillandkillall

Processstates

Influenceschedulingprioritywithniceandrenice

Monitorprocesseswithpsandtop

Runawayprocesses
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Componentsofaprocess

Aprocessistheinstantiationofaprogram

Fromthekernel'
sperspective,aprocessis:

Spring2004

Anaddressspace(thesetofmemorypageswithcode,
libraries,anddata)
Setofdatastructures(withinthekernel)

Theprocess'
saddressspacemap

Currentstatus

Executionpriority

Resourcesused

Signalmask(whichsignalsareblocked)

Theowner

Whichinstructionsarecurrentlybeingexecuted
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Processattributes

ProcessIDPID

ParentPIDPPID

Uniqueidentifier,wrapsaround
Whenaprocessiscloned,thereisaparentandachild

RealandeffectiveuserIDUIDandEUID

EUIDisusedtodeterminewhatpermissionstheprocesshas

AlsorecordsoriginalEUID(savedUID)

Canbereaccessedlaterinprogram(evenafterchangingEUID)

RealandeffectivegroupIDGIDandEGID

Niceness

Spring2004

TheCPUtimeavailabledependsonitsschedulingpriority

Userscanmaketheirprocesses'
nicer'
totherestofthesystem
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Processlifecycle

Anexistingprocesscallsfork(2)

ParentistoldPIDofchild

Childistold0

Childcanuseexec(orsimilar)tostartanewprogram

Whenreadytodie,processcalls_exit(2)withexit
code

Parentmustwait(2)tocollectstatusofdeadchildren

Processbecomesazombie
Resourceusage,whykilled

Orphansareremappedtoinit

Spring2004

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Signals

Signalsareprocesslevelinterruptrequests

Uses

Interprocesscommunication

Terminaldrivercankill,interruptorsuspend
processes(CtrlC,CtrlZ)

Canbesentbyadmin(withkill)forvarious
purposes

Canbesentbykernelwhenprocessbreaksarule

Spring2004

e.g.,divisionbyzero
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Handlingsignals

Processcandesignateasignalhandlerfora
particularsignal

Ifnohandler,kerneltakessomedefaultaction

Whenhandlerisfinishedcatchingsignal,execution
continueswherethesignalwasreceived

Processcanrequestthatparticularsignalsbeignored,
orblocked

Ifsignalisreceivedwhileblocked,oneinstanceof
thatsignalisbuffereduntilitisunblocked

Spring2004

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Importantsignals
# Name Description
Default
Catch? Block?Dump?
1 HUP
Hangup
Terminate
Yes
Yes
No
Reset request; clean up process on terminal (modem hangup)
*csh processes ignore HUP; bash users need nohup command
2 INT
Interrupt
Terminate
Yes
Yes
No
Control-C, can catch and clean up before quiting.
3 QUIT Quit
Terminate
Yes
Yes
Yes
Similar to TERM, but generates a core dump
9 KILL
Kill
Terminate
No
No
No
Never received by process; OS terminates process.
* BUS
Bus error
Terminate
Yes
Yes
Yes
Error signal. Typically memory alignment problem.
11 SEGV Segmentation Fault Terminate
Yes
Yes
Yes
Error signal. Typically memory access to protected space.
Spring2004

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Moresignals
# Name Description
Default
Catch? Block?Dump?
15 TERM Software termination Terminate
Yes
Yes
No
Request to terminate execution. Process can clean up, exit.
* STOP Stop
Stop
No
No
No
OS suspends execution of process until CONT received.
* TSTP Keyboard stop
Stop
Yes
Yes
Yes
Keyboard Ctrl-Z request to stop. Catchable.
* CONT Continue after stop Ignore
Yes
No
No
Continue after STOP.
* WINCH Window changed
Ignore
Yes
Yes
No
Sent by terminal emulator when config changes (resize)
* USR1 User-defined
Terminate
Yes
Yes
No
User defined. Apache restarts gracefully.
* USR2 User-defined
Terminate
Yes
Yes
No
Spring2004

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Sendingsignals

kill [-signal] pid

killsendsTERMsignalbydefault

kill -9 pid===kill -KILL pid

Guaranteesthattheprocesswilldie

kill -USR1 910 3044

killallremovesneedforpid

sudo killall -USR1 httpd

Spring2004

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Processstates

Processexistinoneoffourstates

Runnablecanbeexecuted

Sleepingwaitingforsomeresources

Zombietryingtodie(parenthasn'
twaited)

Stoppedprocessissuspended(notpermittedto
run)

Spring2004

GetsnoCPUtimeuntilresourceisavailable

Likesleeping,butcan'
twakeuntilCONTreceived

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Schedulingpriority

Nicenessishinttokernelabouthowoftento
scheduletheprocess

Linuxrangesfrom20(highpriority,notnice)to
+19(lowpriority,verynice),0isdefault

User/processcanraise,butnotlowerniceness

Rootcanlower

Examples
% nice +5 ~/bin/longtask
% renice -5 8829
% sudo renice 5 -u boggs

Spring2004

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Monitoringprocesses:ps

/bin/psprimarytool

Shows

PID,UID,priority,controlterminal

Memoryusage,CPUtime,status

Manyvariationsofps

Spring2004

psaux(BSD,Linux)

psalf(Solaris)

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Examplepsoutput
USER
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
rpc
rpcuser
ntp
root
root
root
root
root
root
daemon
root
Spring2004

PID %CPU %MEM

1 0.0 0.0
2 0.0 0.0
3 0.0 0.0
5 0.1 0.0
6 3.0 0.0
7 0.0 0.0
8 0.0 0.0
9 0.0 0.0
13 0.0 0.0
92 0.0 0.0
589 0.0 0.0
761 0.0 0.0
766 0.0 0.0
786 0.0 0.0
814 0.0 0.0
933 0.0 0.0
1045 0.0 0.0
1092 0.0 0.0
1097 0.1 0.0
1105 0.0 0.0
1113 0.0 0.0
1209 0.0 0.0
1383 0.0 0.0
1456 0.0 0.0

VSZ RSS TTY

1364
64 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
1424 340 ?
1364 244 ?
1524 360 ?
1660 484 ?
1884 1880 ?
2140 164 ?
1796 176 ?
0
0 ?
0
0 ?
1960 608 ?
1560 288 ?
1408 200 ?
1348 116 tty2

STAT START
TIME COMMAND
S
2003
3:03 init [5]
--init
SW
2003
1:35 [keventd]
SWN
2003
0:27 [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
SW
2003 465:05 [kswapd]
SW
2003 7754:49 [kscand]
SW
2003
1:16 [bdflush]
SW
2003
4:06 [kupdated]
SW<
2003
0:00 [mdrecoveryd]
SW
2003 16:12 [kjournald]
SW
2003
0:00 [khubd]
SW
2003
0:01 [eth0]
S
2003
0:48 syslogd -m 0
S
2003
0:00 klogd -x
S
2003
0:22 portmap
S
2003
1:27 rpc.statd
SL
2003 11:18 ntpd -U ntp -g
S
2003
0:00 xinetd -stayalive
S
2003
0:00 rpc.rquotad
SW
2003 267:24 [nfsd]
SW
2003
0:05 [lockd]
S
2003
0:02 rpc.mountd
S
2003
1:14 crond
S
2003
0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
S
2003
0:00 /sbin/mingetty tt

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Monitoringprocesses:top

/usr/bin/topisoptionalinsomeOSes

ShowstopnCPUusingprocesses

Spring2004

Plusotherstats,likememoryusageand
availability,systemload

Canrenicewithintop

Automaticallyrefreshesscreenevery5seconds

Canfocusonaparticularuser

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Sampletopoutput
10:42pm up 176 days, 1:23, 4 users, load average: 0.04, 0.02, 0.00
117 processes: 116 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU0 states: 0.0% user, 2.2% system, 0.0% nice, 97.2% idle
CPU1 states: 0.2% user, 0.1% system, 0.0% nice, 99.2% idle
Mem: 2064828K av, 2050848K used,
13980K free,
0K shrd, 131000K buff
Swap: 2047744K av, 1116880K used, 930864K free
1744800K cached
PID
6
18460
18533
18605
1
2
3
5
7
8
9
13
92
235
589
680
761
Spring2004

USER
root
root
kiran
brian
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root

PRI NI
16
0
9
0
9
0
10
0
9
0
9
0
19 19
9
0
9
0
9
0
-1 -20
9
0
9
0
9
0
9
0
9
0
9
0

SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM

TIME COMMAND
0
0
0 SW
2.5 0.0 7755m kscand
1872 1828 1456 S
0.1 0.0
0:00 sshd
508 504
408 S
0.1 0.0
0:00 muddleftpd
1092 1092
848 R
0.1 0.0
0:00 top
100
68
48 S
0.0 0.0
3:03 init
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0
1:35 keventd
0
0
0 SWN
0.0 0.0
0:27 ksoftirqd_CPU0
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0 465:05 kswapd
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0
1:16 bdflush
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0
4:06 kupdated
0
0
0 SW<
0.0 0.0
0:00 mdrecoveryd
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0 16:12 kjournald
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0
0:00 khubd
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0
0:00 kjournald
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0
0:01 eth0
0
0
0 SW
0.0 0.0
0:02 eth1
384 340
300 S
0.0 0.0
0:48 syslogd
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Runawayprocesses

Whatcanyoudoaboutprocessesusingan
unusualamountofresources(memory,CPU,
diskspace)?

Identifyresourcehogsusingtopand/orps

Contactownerandaskaboutresourceusage

SuspendusingSTOPsignal(mightbreakjob)

Spring2004

Contactowner,restartorkilllater

ReniceCPUhog

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Creatingperiodicprocesses

Automation,asyou'
veheard,iskeyto
efficiency
Insteadofmanuallyperformingtasksdaily,
weekly,ormonthly,youcanschedulethem

cron

anacron

Includestaskslike:

Spring2004

monitoring,logrotation,backups,filedistribution
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

cron

crondaemonperformstasksatscheduledtimes

crontabfilesareexaminedbycronforschedule

/etc/crontab,/etc/cron.d/*,/var/spool/cron/*

cronwakesupeachminuteandcheckstoseeif
anythingneedstobeexecuted

cronissusceptibletochangesintime

doesn'
tcompensateforwhenmachineisdown,ortime
changes(clockadjustmentsordaylightsavingstime)thatare
sufficientlylarge(3hours,atleastforsomeimplementations)

anacronworksdaily

recordswhentasklastperformed,andwillcatchupfor
Spring2004
CSE398:SystemAdministration
2004BrianD.Davison
missingtime

crontabfiles

Format:

minutehourdaymonthweekday[username]command

usernamenotspecifiedin/var/spool/cron/files
(filenameisusedinstead)

Examples:

Spring2004

#runmakeat2:30eachMondaymorning

302**1(cd/home/joe4/project;make)

#removefilesin/tmpnotaccessedin3days

201***find/tmpaatime+3execrmf{}'
;'

#runsystemactivityaccountingtoolevery10minutes

*/10****root/usr/lib/sa/sa111
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Managingcrontabs

Usecrontab -etoedit

Checksoutacopy

UsesEDITOR

Resubmitsittothe/var/spool/cron/
directory

crontab -lwilllistthecontentstostdout
/etc/cron.allowand/etc/cron.deny
cancontrolaccesstocronfacilities

Spring2004

CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison

Usingcron

Distributionssetupcrontabentriestoautomatically
runscriptsin

/etc/cron.monthly/

/etc/cron.weekly/

/etc/cron.daily/

/etc/cron.hourly/

Typicaltasks:

Spring2004

Cleaningthefilesystem(editorfiles,corefiles)usingfind
Distributingfiles(mailaliases,sendmailconfig,etc.)using
rsync,rdist,orexpect
Logrotation
CSE398:SystemAdministration

2004BrianD.Davison