Hello all.

I've tried the Ubuntu forums, butt they are now to the point of complete ignorance with any intermediate linux question. So I ask you all!

I have a few multi-user servers in an academic laboratory. I am having a problem with some users maxing out the available RAM, causing such sever slowdowns the machine essentially crashes.

My servers are Dell Power Edge's running 8.10 Server Edition.

I would like to set a maximum limit on the amount of ram a user can utilize.

This morning I experimented with setting limits via /etc/security/limits.conf and using ulimit. Neither of them prevented my test program, a simple infinite loop of mallocs, from crashing the server.

How can I achieve this?

Thanks in advance.

Users have to log out first before the PAM settings will take effect.

Also, ulimit is useful only for processes started from a bash shell.

Of course I know that, but it still didn't give the desired results.

Hmm, I've only been reading up on the subject so I can't assist really offer anything in the way of advice except what the manual has to say. I imagine your application may need to be written in a PAM aware fashion for it to work but I'm sure you're aware of that, too.