PowerStore: Health Check Detect Node has Slab Allocation Over skbuff_fclone_cache Limit

PowerStore Pre-Upgrade Health Check (PUHC) and System Health Check (SHC) may detect this issue when run on the following PowerStoreOS releases:

• PowerStoreOS 3.x
• PowerStoreOS 4.0.x

Scenario 1:
The following message may be observed prior to an upgrade from PowerStoreOS versions 3.0.0 through 3.6.1.4, and from versions 4.0.0 through 4.0.1.1 when running PUHC:

The available system memory or skbuff_fclone_cache is below threshold (KB 000261124). Please contact your service provider. (off_release_check_kernel_slab_memory_failed)

Scenario 2:
The following message may be observed on a PowerStoreOS 3.x or 4.0.x cluster when running SHC:

Kernel memory allocation is over the limit. (KB 000261124)

• If the System Health Check (SHC) test is run from the Command-Line Interface (CLI), the following may be displayed:

[BSC:cyc@ABCDEFG-A cyc]$ svc_health_check run -rhc kernel_slab_check
/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/__init__.py:91: RequestsDependencyWarning: urllib3 (1.26.18) or chardet (3.0.4) doesn't match a supported version!
  RequestsDependencyWarning)
Name                               Location  Status     Description
OS kernel memory allocation check  node_a    Failed     Kernel memory allocation is over the limit. (KB 000261124)
OS kernel memory allocation check  node_b    Passed


SUMMARY Status: Failed
   Passed:      1
   Failed:      1
   Total:       2
[BSC:cyc@ABCDEFG-A cyc]$

 
[BSC:cyc@ABCDEFG-B ~]$ svc_health_check run -rhc kernel_slab_check
/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/__init__.py:91: RequestsDependencyWarning: urllib3 (1.26.18) or chardet (3.0.4) doesn't match a supported version!
  RequestsDependencyWarning)
Name                               Location  Status     Description
OS kernel memory allocation check  node_a    Failed     Kernel memory allocation is over the limit. (KB#000261124)
OS kernel memory allocation check  node_b    Passed


SUMMARY Status: Failed
   Passed:      1
   Failed:      1
   Total:       2

These health checks are off-release PUHC and SHC checks that are contained in the Health Check thin package. This package can be downloaded from the Dell Drivers & Downloads site.

See the Additional Info section for information about the Health Check thin package.

A node may encounter a kernel panic due to an Out-Of-Memory (OOM) condition. This issue is due to high memory consumption of skbuff_fclone_cache from SLAB.

To resolve this issue, contact Dell Technical Support for assistance. Mention this article for expedited attention and resolution.

Related articles: 

• PowerStore: How to Check the Health of the Cluster Before Software Upgrade Using Pre-Upgrade Health Check and System Check        
• PowerStore: Landing Page for In Market (off-release) System Health Checks