linux-kernel - Excessive swapping under Linux 4.14.91 (no issues in 4.14.90).

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Message-ID: <trinity-fd67cbaa-5164-40ca-b198-ded5998d2578-1546544963406@3c-app-mailcom-bs01>
Date:   Thu, 3 Jan 2019 20:49:23 +0100
From:   "Hussam Al-Tayeb" <hussam.altayeb@....com>
To:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Excessive swapping under Linux 4.14.91 (no issues in 4.14.90).

Hello. My system has 16GB of ram. Before kernel 4.14.91, it would use about 700KBytes to 1MB of the swap if the memory usage was 4 to 5GB in use out of 16GB (15.6 actually).

After upgrading to 4.14.91, I am seeing 500 to 700MB of swap usage even under low memory pressure situations. For example, 3.5GB used out of 16GB.

I downgraded to 4.14.90 and the excessive swapping stopped. I upgraded to 4.14.91 and the heavy swapping came back.

Any idea how I can gather information to tell what is happening?

The machine always has the same services and applications running so I am sure this is a kernel issue. It hasn't received any non-kernel updates in months. This narrows the issue down to the kernel.

Thank you.