---
title: "Managing Kernel Resources"
id: kernel-resources
pg_version: "20devel"
---
## 18.4. Managing Kernel Resources
PostgreSQL can sometimes exhaust various operating system resource limits, especially when multiple copies of the server are running on the same system, or in very large installations. This section explains the kernel resources used by PostgreSQL and the steps you can take to resolve problems related to kernel resource consumption.
### 18.4.1. Shared Memory and Semaphores
PostgreSQL requires the operating system to provide inter-process communication (IPC) features, specifically shared memory and semaphores. Unix-derived systems typically provide "System V" IPC, "POSIX" IPC, or both. Windows has its own implementation of these features and is not discussed here.
By default, PostgreSQL allocates a very small amount of System V shared memory, as well as a much larger amount of anonymous `mmap` shared memory. Alternatively, a single large System V shared memory region can be used (see [`shared_memory_type` (`enum`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-shared-memory-type)). In addition a significant number of semaphores, which can be either System V or POSIX style, are created at server startup. Currently, POSIX semaphores are used on Linux and FreeBSD systems while other platforms use System V semaphores.
System V IPC features are typically constrained by system-wide allocation limits. When PostgreSQL exceeds one of these limits, the server will refuse to start and should leave an instructive error message describing the problem and what to do about it. (See also [Section 18.3.1](server-start.md#server-start-failures).) The relevant kernel parameters are named consistently across different systems; [Table 18.1](kernel-resources.md#sysvipc-parameters) gives an overview. The methods to set them, however, vary. Suggestions for some platforms are given below.
**System V IPC Parameters**
| Name | Description | Values needed to run one PostgreSQL instance |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `SHMMAX` | Maximum size of shared memory segment (bytes) | at least 1kB, but the default is usually much higher |
| `SHMMIN` | Minimum size of shared memory segment (bytes) | 1 |
| `SHMALL` | Total amount of shared memory available (bytes or pages) | same as `SHMMAX` if bytes, or `ceil(SHMMAX/PAGE_SIZE)` if pages, plus room for other applications |
| `SHMSEG` | Maximum number of shared memory segments per process | only 1 segment is needed, but the default is much higher |
| `SHMMNI` | Maximum number of shared memory segments system-wide | like `SHMSEG` plus room for other applications |
| `SEMMNI` | Maximum number of semaphore identifiers (i.e., sets) | at least `ceil(num_os_semaphores / 16)` plus room for other applications |
| `SEMMNS` | Maximum number of semaphores system-wide | `ceil(num_os_semaphores / 16) * 17` plus room for other applications |
| `SEMMSL` | Maximum number of semaphores per set | at least 17 |
| `SEMMAP` | Number of entries in semaphore map | see text |
| `SEMVMX` | Maximum value of semaphore | at least 1000 (The default is often 32767; do not change unless necessary) |
PostgreSQL requires a few bytes of System V shared memory (typically 48 bytes, on 64-bit platforms) for each copy of the server. On most modern operating systems, this amount can easily be allocated. However, if you are running many copies of the server or you explicitly configure the server to use large amounts of System V shared memory (see [`shared_memory_type` (`enum`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-shared-memory-type) and [`dynamic_shared_memory_type` (`enum`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-dynamic-shared-memory-type)), it may be necessary to increase `SHMALL`, which is the total amount of System V shared memory system-wide. Note that `SHMALL` is measured in pages rather than bytes on many systems.
Less likely to cause problems is the minimum size for shared memory segments (`SHMMIN`), which should be at most approximately 32 bytes for PostgreSQL (it is usually just 1). The maximum number of segments system-wide (`SHMMNI`) or per-process (`SHMSEG`) are unlikely to cause a problem unless your system has them set to zero.
When using System V semaphores, PostgreSQL uses one semaphore per allowed connection ([`max_connections` (`integer`)](runtime-config-connection.md#guc-max-connections)), allowed autovacuum worker process ([`autovacuum_worker_slots` (`integer`)](runtime-config-vacuum.md#guc-autovacuum-worker-slots)), allowed WAL sender process ([`max_wal_senders` (`integer`)](runtime-config-replication.md#guc-max-wal-senders)), allowed background process ([`max_worker_processes` (`integer`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-max-worker-processes)), etc., in sets of 16. The runtime-computed parameter [`num_os_semaphores` (`integer`)](runtime-config-preset.md#guc-num-os-semaphores) reports the number of semaphores required. This parameter can be viewed before starting the server with a `postgres` command like:
$ postgres -D $PGDATA -C num_os_semaphores
Each set of 16 semaphores will also contain a 17th semaphore which contains a "magic number", to detect collision with semaphore sets used by other applications. The maximum number of semaphores in the system is set by `SEMMNS`, which consequently must be at least as high as `num_os_semaphores` plus one extra for each set of 16 required semaphores (see the formula in [Table 18.1](kernel-resources.md#sysvipc-parameters)). The parameter `SEMMNI` determines the limit on the number of semaphore sets that can exist on the system at one time. Hence this parameter must be at least `ceil(num_os_semaphores / 16)`. Lowering the number of allowed connections is a temporary workaround for failures, which are usually confusingly worded "No space left on device", from the function `semget`.
In some cases it might also be necessary to increase `SEMMAP` to be at least on the order of `SEMMNS`. If the system has this parameter (many do not), it defines the size of the semaphore resource map, in which each contiguous block of available semaphores needs an entry. When a semaphore set is freed it is either added to an existing entry that is adjacent to the freed block or it is registered under a new map entry. If the map is full, the freed semaphores get lost (until reboot). Fragmentation of the semaphore space could over time lead to fewer available semaphores than there should be.
Various other settings related to "semaphore undo", such as `SEMMNU` and `SEMUME`, do not affect PostgreSQL.
When using POSIX semaphores, the number of semaphores needed is the same as for System V, that is one semaphore per allowed connection ([`max_connections` (`integer`)](runtime-config-connection.md#guc-max-connections)), allowed autovacuum worker process ([`autovacuum_worker_slots` (`integer`)](runtime-config-vacuum.md#guc-autovacuum-worker-slots)), allowed WAL sender process ([`max_wal_senders` (`integer`)](runtime-config-replication.md#guc-max-wal-senders)), allowed background process ([`max_worker_processes` (`integer`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-max-worker-processes)), etc. On the platforms where this option is preferred, there is no specific kernel limit on the number of POSIX semaphores.
**AIX **
It should not be necessary to do any special configuration for such parameters as `SHMMAX`, as it appears this is configured to allow all memory to be used as shared memory. That is the sort of configuration commonly used for other databases such as DB/2. It might, however, be necessary to modify the global `ulimit` information in `/etc/security/limits`, as the default hard limits for file sizes (`fsize`) and numbers of files (`nofiles`) might be too low. **FreeBSD **
The default shared memory settings are usually good enough, unless you have set `shared_memory_type` to `sysv`. System V semaphores are not used on this platform. The default IPC settings can be changed using the `sysctl` or `loader` interfaces. The following parameters can be set using `sysctl`:
# sysctl kern.ipc.shmall=32768
# sysctl kern.ipc.shmmax=134217728
To make these settings persist over reboots, modify `/etc/sysctl.conf`. If you have set `shared_memory_type` to `sysv`, you might also want to configure your kernel to lock System V shared memory into RAM and prevent it from being paged out to swap. This can be accomplished using the `sysctl` setting `kern.ipc.shm_use_phys`. If running in a FreeBSD jail, you should set its `sysvshm` parameter to `new`, so that it has its own separate System V shared memory namespace. (Before FreeBSD 11.0, it was necessary to enable shared access to the host's IPC namespace from jails, and take measures to avoid collisions.) **NetBSD **
The default shared memory settings are usually good enough, unless you have set `shared_memory_type` to `sysv`. However, you will need to increase `kern.ipc.semmni` and `kern.ipc.semmns`, as NetBSD's default settings for these are unworkably small. IPC parameters can be adjusted using `sysctl`, for example:
# sysctl -w kern.ipc.semmni=100
To make these settings persist over reboots, modify `/etc/sysctl.conf`. If you have set `shared_memory_type` to `sysv`, you might also want to configure your kernel to lock System V shared memory into RAM and prevent it from being paged out to swap. This can be accomplished using the `sysctl` setting `kern.ipc.shm_use_phys`. **OpenBSD **
The default shared memory settings are usually good enough, unless you have set `shared_memory_type` to `sysv`. However, you will need to increase `kern.seminfo.semmni` and `kern.seminfo.semmns`, as OpenBSD's default settings for these are unworkably small. IPC parameters can be adjusted using `sysctl`, for example:
# sysctl kern.seminfo.semmni=100
To make these settings persist over reboots, modify `/etc/sysctl.conf`. **Linux **
The default shared memory settings are usually good enough, unless you have set `shared_memory_type` to `sysv`, and even then only on older kernel versions that shipped with low defaults. System V semaphores are not used on this platform. The shared memory size settings can be changed via the `sysctl` interface. For example, to allow 16 GB:
$ sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=17179869184
$ sysctl -w kernel.shmall=4194304
To make these settings persist over reboots, see `/etc/sysctl.conf`. **macOS **
The default shared memory and semaphore settings are usually good enough, unless you have set `shared_memory_type` to `sysv`. The recommended method for configuring shared memory in macOS is to create a file named `/etc/sysctl.conf`, containing variable assignments such as:
kern.sysv.shmmax=4194304
kern.sysv.shmmin=1
kern.sysv.shmmni=32
kern.sysv.shmseg=8
kern.sysv.shmall=1024
Note that in some macOS versions, *all five* shared-memory parameters must be set in `/etc/sysctl.conf`, else the values will be ignored. `SHMMAX` can only be set to a multiple of 4096. `SHMALL` is measured in 4 kB pages on this platform. It is possible to change all but `SHMMNI` on the fly, using sysctl. But it's still best to set up your preferred values via `/etc/sysctl.conf`, so that the values will be kept across reboots. **Solaris**, **illumos**
The default shared memory and semaphore settings are usually good enough for most PostgreSQL applications. Solaris defaults to a `SHMMAX` of one-quarter of system RAM. To further adjust this setting, use a project setting associated with the `postgres` user. For example, run the following as `root`:
projadd -c "PostgreSQL DB User" -K "project.max-shm-memory=(privileged,8GB,deny)" -U postgres -G postgres user.postgres
This command adds the `user.postgres` project and sets the shared memory maximum for the `postgres` user to 8GB, and takes effect the next time that user logs in, or when you restart PostgreSQL (not reload). The above assumes that PostgreSQL is run by the `postgres` user in the `postgres` group. No server reboot is required. To run a very large server, or multiple servers concurrently, you might also need to raise `project.max-shm-ids`. Additionally, if you are running PostgreSQL inside a zone, you may need to raise the zone resource usage limits as well. See "Chapter2: Projects and Tasks" in the System Administrator's Guide for more information on `projects` and `prctl`.
### 18.4.2. systemd RemoveIPC
If systemd is in use, some care must be taken that IPC resources (including shared memory) are not prematurely removed by the operating system. This is especially of concern when installing PostgreSQL from source. Users of distribution packages of PostgreSQL are less likely to be affected, as the `postgres` user is then normally created as a system user.
The setting `RemoveIPC` in `logind.conf` controls whether IPC objects are removed when a user fully logs out. System users are exempt. This setting defaults to on in stock systemd, but some operating system distributions default it to off.
A typical observed effect when this setting is on is that shared memory objects used for parallel query execution are removed at apparently random times, leading to errors and warnings while attempting to open and remove them, like
WARNING: could not remove shared memory segment "/PostgreSQL.1450751626": No such file or directory
Different types of IPC objects (shared memory vs. semaphores, System V vs. POSIX) are treated slightly differently by systemd, so one might observe that some IPC resources are not removed in the same way as others. But it is not advisable to rely on these subtle differences.
A "user logging out" might happen as part of a maintenance job or manually when an administrator logs in as the `postgres` user or something similar, so it is hard to prevent in general.
What is a "system user" is determined at systemd compile time from the `SYS_UID_MAX` setting in `/etc/login.defs`.
Packaging and deployment scripts should be careful to create the `postgres` user as a system user by using `useradd -r`, `adduser --system`, or equivalent.
Alternatively, if the user account was created incorrectly or cannot be changed, it is recommended to set
RemoveIPC=no
in `/etc/systemd/logind.conf` or another appropriate configuration file.
> [!CAUTION]
> At least one of these two things has to be ensured, or the PostgreSQL server will be very unreliable.
### 18.4.3. Resource Limits
Unix-like operating systems enforce various kinds of resource limits that might interfere with the operation of your PostgreSQL server. Of particular importance are limits on the number of processes per user, the number of open files per process, and the amount of memory available to each process. Each of these have a "hard" and a "soft" limit. The soft limit is what actually counts but it can be changed by the user up to the hard limit. The hard limit can only be changed by the root user. The system call `setrlimit` is responsible for setting these parameters. The shell's built-in command `ulimit` (Bourne shells) or `limit` (csh) is used to control the resource limits from the command line. On BSD-derived systems the file `/etc/login.conf` controls the various resource limits set during login. See the operating system documentation for details. The relevant parameters are `maxproc`, `openfiles`, and `datasize`. For example:
default:\
...
:datasize-cur=256M:\
:maxproc-cur=256:\
:openfiles-cur=256:\
...
(`-cur` is the soft limit. Append `-max` to set the hard limit.)
Kernels can also have system-wide limits on some resources.
- On Linux the kernel parameter `fs.file-max` determines the maximum number of open files that the kernel will support. It can be changed with `sysctl -w fs.file-max=N`. To make the setting persist across reboots, add an assignment in `/etc/sysctl.conf`. The maximum limit of files per process is fixed at the time the kernel is compiled; see `/usr/src/linux/Documentation/proc.txt` for more information.
The PostgreSQL server uses one process per connection so you should provide for at least as many processes as allowed connections, in addition to what you need for the rest of your system. This is usually not a problem but if you run several servers on one machine things might get tight.
The factory default limit on open files is often set to "socially friendly" values that allow many users to coexist on a machine without using an inappropriate fraction of the system resources. If you run many servers on a machine this is perhaps what you want, but on dedicated servers you might want to raise this limit.
On the other side of the coin, some systems allow individual processes to open large numbers of files; if more than a few processes do so then the system-wide limit can easily be exceeded. If you find this happening, and you do not want to alter the system-wide limit, you can set PostgreSQL's [`max_files_per_process` (`integer`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-max-files-per-process) configuration parameter to limit the consumption of open files.
Another kernel limit that may be of concern when supporting large numbers of client connections is the maximum socket connection queue length. If more than that many connection requests arrive within a very short period, some may get rejected before the PostgreSQL server can service the requests, with those clients receiving unhelpful connection failure errors such as "Resource temporarily unavailable" or "Connection refused". The default queue length limit is 128 on many platforms. To raise it, adjust the appropriate kernel parameter via sysctl, then restart the PostgreSQL server. The parameter is variously named `net.core.somaxconn` on Linux, `kern.ipc.soacceptqueue` on newer FreeBSD, and `kern.ipc.somaxconn` on macOS and other BSD variants.
### 18.4.4. Linux Memory Overcommit
The default virtual memory behavior on Linux is not optimal for PostgreSQL. Because of the way that the kernel implements memory overcommit, the kernel might terminate the PostgreSQL postmaster (the supervisor server process) if the memory demands of either PostgreSQL or another process cause the system to run out of virtual memory.
If this happens, you will see a kernel message that looks like this (consult your system documentation and configuration on where to look for such a message):
Out of Memory: Killed process 12345 (postgres).
This indicates that the `postgres` process has been terminated due to memory pressure. Although existing database connections will continue to function normally, no new connections will be accepted. To recover, PostgreSQL will need to be restarted.
One way to avoid this problem is to run PostgreSQL on a machine where you can be sure that other processes will not run the machine out of memory. If memory is tight, increasing the swap space of the operating system can help avoid the problem, because the out-of-memory (OOM) killer is invoked only when physical memory and swap space are exhausted.
If PostgreSQL itself is the cause of the system running out of memory, you can avoid the problem by changing your configuration. In some cases, it may help to lower memory-related configuration parameters, particularly [`shared_buffers`](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-shared-buffers), [`work_mem`](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-work-mem), and [`hash_mem_multiplier`](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-hash-mem-multiplier). In other cases, the problem may be caused by allowing too many connections to the database server itself. In many cases, it may be better to reduce [`max_connections`](runtime-config-connection.md#guc-max-connections) and instead make use of external connection-pooling software.
It is possible to modify the kernel's behavior so that it will not "overcommit" memory. Although this setting will not prevent the [OOM killer](https://lwn.net/Articles/104179/) from being invoked altogether, it will lower the chances significantly and will therefore lead to more robust system behavior. This is done by selecting strict overcommit mode via `sysctl`:
sysctl -w vm.overcommit_memory=2
or placing an equivalent entry in `/etc/sysctl.conf`. You might also wish to modify the related setting `vm.overcommit_ratio`. For details see the kernel documentation file [https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/overcommit-accounting](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/overcommit-accounting).
Another approach, which can be used with or without altering `vm.overcommit_memory`, is to set the process-specific *OOM score adjustment* value for the postmaster process to `-1000`, thereby guaranteeing it will not be targeted by the OOM killer. The simplest way to do this is to execute
echo -1000 > /proc/self/oom_score_adj
in the PostgreSQL startup script just before invoking `postgres`. Note that this action must be done as root, or it will have no effect; so a root-owned startup script is the easiest place to do it. If you do this, you should also set these environment variables in the startup script before invoking `postgres`:
export PG_OOM_ADJUST_FILE=/proc/self/oom_score_adj
export PG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE=0
These settings will cause postmaster child processes to run with the normal OOM score adjustment of zero, so that the OOM killer can still target them at need. You could use some other value for PG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE if you want the child processes to run with some other OOM score adjustment. (PG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE can also be omitted, in which case it defaults to zero.) If you do not set PG_OOM_ADJUST_FILE, the child processes will run with the same OOM score adjustment as the postmaster, which is unwise since the whole point is to ensure that the postmaster has a preferential setting.
### 18.4.5. Linux Huge Pages
Using huge pages reduces overhead when using large contiguous chunks of memory, as PostgreSQL does, particularly when using large values of [`shared_buffers` (`integer`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-shared-buffers). To use this feature in PostgreSQL you need a kernel with `CONFIG_HUGETLBFS=y` and `CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE=y`. You will also have to configure the operating system to provide enough huge pages of the desired size. The runtime-computed parameter [`shared_memory_size_in_huge_pages` (`integer`)](runtime-config-preset.md#guc-shared-memory-size-in-huge-pages) reports the number of huge pages required. This parameter can be viewed before starting the server with a `postgres` command like:
$ postgres -D $PGDATA -C shared_memory_size_in_huge_pages
3170
$ grep ^Hugepagesize /proc/meminfo
Hugepagesize: 2048 kB
$ ls /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages
hugepages-1048576kB hugepages-2048kB
In this example the default is 2MB, but you can also explicitly request either 2MB or 1GB with [`huge_page_size` (`integer`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-huge-page-size) to adapt the number of pages calculated by `shared_memory_size_in_huge_pages`. While we need at least `3170` huge pages in this example, a larger setting would be appropriate if other programs on the machine also need huge pages. We can set this with:
# sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=3170
Don't forget to add this setting to `/etc/sysctl.conf` so that it is reapplied after reboots. For non-default huge page sizes, we can instead use:
# echo 3170 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages
It is also possible to provide these settings at boot time using kernel parameters such as `hugepagesz=2M hugepages=3170`.
Sometimes the kernel is not able to allocate the desired number of huge pages immediately due to fragmentation, so it might be necessary to repeat the command or to reboot. (Immediately after a reboot, most of the machine's memory should be available to convert into huge pages.) To verify the huge page allocation situation for a given size, use:
$ cat /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages
It may also be necessary to give the database server's operating system user permission to use huge pages by setting `vm.hugetlb_shm_group` via sysctl, and/or give permission to lock memory with `ulimit -l`.
The default behavior for huge pages in PostgreSQL is to use them when possible, with the system's default huge page size, and to fall back to normal pages on failure. To enforce the use of huge pages, you can set [`huge_pages` (`enum`)](runtime-config-resource.md#guc-huge-pages) to `on` in `postgresql.conf`. Note that with this setting PostgreSQL will fail to start if not enough huge pages are available.
For a detailed description of the Linux huge pages feature have a look at [https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt).