IV08836: IFSTAT MEMORY LEAK ON AIX MACHINES WITH MANY DISABLED NETWORK INTERFACES

IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.2.2 Fix Pack 8 (6.2.2-TIV-ITM-FP0008)
IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.2.2 Fix Pack 9 (6.2.2-TIV-ITM-FP0009)
IBM Tivoli Monitoring: Unix(R) OS Agent 6.2.2.4-TIV-ITM_UNIX-IF0007

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• Environment:
  IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for UNIX OS 6.2.2 on AIX
  
  Problem Description:
  On AIX, the Monitoring Agent for UNIX OS (UX)
  ifstat process can leak memory when it is running
  on a machine with many disabled network interfaces.
  
  To identify the issue, debug ifstat binaries were
  provided, and performance.sh script was used to identify
  when memory increases occurred.
  
  in ifstat.performance.history we see increasing memory usage:
  Wed Sep 21 14:37:54 DFT 2011:   1312  0.0
  Wed Sep 21 14:37:55 DFT 2011:   1316  0.0
  .
  In <system>_ux_ifstat_<timestamp>-##.log RAS1 log:
  (2011/09/21,14:37:48.0000-1:
   ifstat-bsd.cpp,149,"get_mac_addr") Entry
  (2011/09/21,14:37:51.0000-1:
   ifstat-bsd.cpp,172,"get_mac_addr")
   Allocating cached_interface for et0
  (2011/09/21,14:37:53.0000-1:
   ifstat-bsd.cpp,192,"get_mac_addr")
   getkerninfo returned 1624 bytes
  (2011/09/21,14:37:54.0000-1:
   ifstat-bsd.cpp,201,"get_mac_addr") 1624
  (2011/09/21,14:37:55.0000-1:
   ifstat-bsd.cpp,225,"get_mac_addr") "" =?
  "et0" || "fcs0" =? "et0"
  (2011/09/21,14:37:56.0000-1:
   ifstat-bsd.cpp,225,"get_mac_addr") "" =?
  "et0" || "fcs1" =? "et0"
  (2011/09/21,14:37:57.0000-1:
   ifstat-bsd.cpp,225,"get_mac_addr") "en2" =?
  
  RAS1 tracing is not conclusive, testfixe ifstat
  binaries were used to confirm the issue until
  memory leaks were no longer witnessed in the
  performance.sh output.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ifstat memory leak on AIX machines with many disabled network.
  interfaces.
  
  On AIX, the Monitoring Agent for UNIX OS ifstat process can leak
  memory when it is running on a machine with many disabled
  network interfaces.
  

Problem conclusion

• Agent code has been changed in order to remove the memory leak
  related to disabled network interfaces.
  
  
  The fix for this APAR is going to be included in the following
  maintenance vehicle:
  
    | interim fix | 6.2.2.4-TIV-ITM_UNIX-IF0007
    | fix pack | 6.2.2-TIV-ITM-FP0008
    | fix pack | 6.2.3-TIV-ITM-FP0001
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  ITM AGENT UNIX

• Fixed component ID

  5724C040U

Applicable component levels

• R622 PSY

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