Is it safe to kill sleeping processes in linux?
 

Hello people,

I'm pretty new in Linux servers and have this top output;

top - 09:26:14 up 58 days, 23:21, 4 users, load average: 11.51, 11.33, 11.19
Tasks: 543 total, 5 running, 537 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 99.8%us, 0.1%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 16432184k total, 16338204k used, 93980k free, 717396k buffers
Swap: 8385920k total, 74116k used, 8311804k free, 9161704k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
14211 applprod 15 0 827m 201m 28m S 100.2 1.3 31255:58 rwrun
19447 applprod 15 0 824m 197m 28m S 100.2 1.2 19546:56 rwrun
21744 applprod 15 0 818m 192m 28m S 99.8 1.2 55649:20 rwrun
23430 applprod 15 0 827m 200m 28m S 99.8 1.2 55710:44 rwrun
29870 applprod 15 0 826m 198m 28m S 99.8 1.2 52638:10 rwrun
2332 oraprod 25 0 2482m 1.0g 828m R 99.5 6.5 47:38.42 oracle
23429 applprod 15 0 832m 206m 28m S 99.5 1.3 55699:33 rwrun
29091 applprod 15 0 826m 199m 28m S 99.5 1.2 51067:25 rwrun
6402 applprod 18 0 13020 1452 816 R 0.7 0.0 0:10.16 top
2252 oraprod 25 0 64020 1344 1016 S 0.3 0.0 205:59.09 bash
8801 oraprod 15 0 2254m 511m 502m S 0.3 3.2 3:27.74 oracle
12180 oraprod 25 0 64016 1336 1016 R 0.3 0.0 14405:10 bash


I see CPU usage of 100% used by sleeping processes. Is it safe to kill these processes?

You should read this http://slack-linux.blogspot.com.au/2...ate-codes.html, but fundamentally, you need to look at the src for 'rwrun' and figure out the fundamental problem.
Killing processes like that won't solve anything in the long run and may lead to loss of data/functionality.

I completely agree with Chris,the only case where its needed when its reaching pid_max value but I dont think its reaching in your case

[root@desktop1 sysctl]# sysctl -a|grep -i pid_max
kernel.pid_max = 32768

kill sleepin processes
 

Thanks Chris....but i'm a bit confused. I ran ps -ef|grep rwrun and below is the output; Can i kill these processes? what could be the implication? Thanks a lot for your suppot.

[applprod@lagsv-is-erp-prd ~]$ ps -ef|grep rwrun
applprod 12864 12666 99 Nov02 ? 2-22:16:39 /u02/applprod/PROD/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/rwrun mode=character P_CONC_REQUEST_ID=809502 P_ACCESS_SET_ID='1000' P_LEDGER_ID='2044' P_START_PERIOD='2011/01/01 00:00:00' P_END_PERIOD='2011/12/31 00:00:00' P_CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID='50328' P_COMPANY='200' P_ADJUSTMENT_PERIODS='Y' report=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/gl/12.0.0/reports/US/GLYRLJGE.rdf userid=APPS batch=yes destype=file desname=/u02/applprod/PROD/inst/apps/PROD_lagsv-is-erp-prd/logs/appl/conc/out/o809502.out desformat=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/reports/HPW pagesize=180x66
applprod 12865 12668 99 Nov02 ? 2-22:16:48 /u02/applprod/PROD/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/rwrun mode=character P_CONC_REQUEST_ID=804506 P_ACCESS_SET_ID='1000' P_LEDGER_ID='2044' P_START_PERIOD='2011/01/01 00:00:00' P_END_PERIOD='2011/12/31 00:00:00' P_CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID='50328' P_COMPANY='200' P_ADJUSTMENT_PERIODS='Y' report=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/gl/12.0.0/reports/US/GLYRLJGE.rdf userid=APPS batch=yes destype=file desname=/u02/applprod/PROD/inst/apps/PROD_lagsv-is-erp-prd/logs/appl/conc/out/o804506.out desformat=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/reports/HPW pagesize=180x66
applprod 21744 1 99 Sep24 ? 41-21:21:00 /u02/applprod/PROD/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/rwrun mode=character P_CONC_REQUEST_ID=767552 P_ACCESS_SET_ID='1000' P_LEDGER_ID='2044' P_CURRENCY_CODE='NGN' P_START_PERIOD='2011/01/01 00:00:00' P_END_PERIOD='2011/12/31 00:00:00' P_CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID='50328' P_COMPANY='200' P_ADJUSTMENT_PERIODS='N' report=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/gl/12.0.0/reports/US/GLYRLJGE.rdf userid=APPS batch=yes destype=file desname=/u02/applprod/PROD/inst/apps/PROD_lagsv-is-erp-prd/logs/appl/conc/out/o767552.out desformat=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/reports/HPW pagesize=180x66
applprod 23429 1 99 Sep24 ? 41-22:11:18 /u02/applprod/PROD/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/rwrun mode=character P_CONC_REQUEST_ID=750924 P_ACCESS_SET_ID='1000' P_LEDGER_ID='2044' P_CURRENCY_CODE='NGN' P_START_PERIOD='2011/01/01 00:00:00' P_END_PERIOD='2011/12/31 00:00:00' P_CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID='50328' P_COMPANY='200' P_ADJUSTMENT_PERIODS='N' report=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/gl/12.0.0/reports/US/GLYRLJGE.rdf userid=APPS batch=yes destype=file desname=/u02/applprod/PROD/inst/apps/PROD_lagsv-is-erp-prd/logs/appl/conc/out/o750924.out desformat=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/reports/HPW pagesize=180x66
applprod 23430 1 99 Sep24 ? 41-22:21:13 /u02/applprod/PROD/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/rwrun mode=character P_CONC_REQUEST_ID=764860 P_ACCESS_SET_ID='1000' P_LEDGER_ID='2044' P_CURRENCY_CODE='NGN' P_START_PERIOD='2011/01/01 00:00:00' P_END_PERIOD='2011/12/31 00:00:00' P_CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID='50328' P_COMPANY='200' P_ADJUSTMENT_PERIODS='N' report=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/gl/12.0.0/reports/US/GLYRLJGE.rdf userid=APPS batch=yes destype=file desname=/u02/applprod/PROD/inst/apps/PROD_lagsv-is-erp-prd/logs/appl/conc/out/o764860.out desformat=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/reports/HPW pagesize=180x66
applprod 25998 26971 0 15:30 pts/3 00:00:00 grep rwrun
applprod 29091 1 99 Sep27 ? 38-16:57:57 /u02/applprod/PROD/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/rwrun mode=character P_CONC_REQUEST_ID=770035 P_ACCESS_SET_ID='1000' P_LEDGER_ID='2044' P_CURRENCY_CODE='NGN' P_START_PERIOD='2011/01/01 00:00:00' P_END_PERIOD='2011/12/31 00:00:00' P_CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID='50328' P_COMPANY='200' P_ADJUSTMENT_PERIODS='N' report=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/gl/12.0.0/reports/US/GLYRLJGE.rdf userid=APPS batch=yes destype=file desname=/u02/applprod/PROD/inst/apps/PROD_lagsv-is-erp-prd/logs/appl/conc/out/o770035.out desformat=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/reports/HPW pagesize=180x66
applprod 29870 1 99 Sep26 ? 39-19:06:44 /u02/applprod/PROD/apps/tech_st/10.1.2/bin/rwrun mode=character P_CONC_REQUEST_ID=769152 P_ACCESS_SET_ID='1000' P_LEDGER_ID='2044' P_CURRENCY_CODE='NGN' P_START_PERIOD='2011/01/01 00:00:00' P_END_PERIOD='2011/12/31 00:00:00' P_CHART_OF_ACCOUNTS_ID='50328' P_COMPANY='200' P_ADJUSTMENT_PERIODS='N' report=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/gl/12.0.0/reports/US/GLYRLJGE.rdf userid=APPS batch=yes destype=file desname=/u02/applprod/PROD/inst/apps/PROD_lagsv-is-erp-prd/logs/appl/conc/out/o769152.out desformat=/u02/applprod/PROD/apps/apps_st/appl/fnd/12.0.0/reports/HPW pagesize=180x66

Well, it says
on the first line.
Like I said, you need to find out what that prog does and how/why.
I repeat; randomly killing processes is nearly always the wrong to thing to do and may damage your system and/or data....

Several comments:

1. If it's "sleeping," then it can't be using 100% CPU, now can it?
2. These processes appear to be "part of Oracle." [i]Touch Not!![i]
3. If a process that's "part of Oracle" is really-busy and is consuming all the CPU it can get its hands on, I suggest that you should presume that it knows what it's doing.
4. Use Oracle-provided commands to find out what Oracle thinks it's doing, and use Oracle-provided commands to stop anything. Keep your "superduper powers" firmly in your pockets, unused.