Bug ID 773677: BIG-IP 14.1.0 system-journald write to /run/log/journal cause SWAP usage increase

Last Modified: May 29, 2024

Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP All, Install/Upgrade(all modules)

Known Affected Versions:
14.1.0, 14.1.0.1, 14.1.0.2, 14.1.0.3, 14.1.0.5

Fixed In:
15.0.0, 14.1.0.6

Opened: Apr 17, 2019

Severity: 2-Critical

Related Article: K72255850

Symptoms

The system-journald process writes to temporary storage /run/log/journal when storage mode is set to 'auto'. The persistent directory /var/log/journal that controls where the log goes (temporary or persistent memory) is usually created during BIG-IP system reboot. In some cases, /var/log/journal is not created. In the absence of this, system-journald writes to temporary storage /run/log/journal.

Impact

As it writes to temporary memory, system SWAP memory usage increases, impacting overall system performance and may result in the kernel out-of-memory killer running and killing system processes.

Conditions

BIG-IP upgraded from versions prior to v14.1.0 to version 14.1.0 or later.

Workaround

Perform these steps while running the upgraded 14.1.x system. 1. Create system-journald persistent log directory manually: mkdir /var/log/journal chown root:systemd-journal /var/log/journal chmod 2755 /var/log/journal chcon system_u:object_r:var_log_t:s0 /var/log/journal 2. Reboot the system.

Fix Information

The system-journald persistent directory is always created during reboot or when the system-journald storage option is set to 'persistent'.

Behavior Change

Guides & references

K10134038: F5 Bug Tracker Filter Names and Tips