Shell commands return 'bash resource temporarily unavailable' errors in RHEL 5

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5
  • device-mapper-multipath-0.4.7-17

Issue

  • Our RHEL 5.2 server has a history of spitting "bash resource temporarily unavailable", when executing any command and the only resolution on our hand is to reboot. Also, in the messages file, we're seeing lots of errors like this:
Apr  4 06:31:44 localhost multipathd: error calling out /sbin/mpath_prio_emc /dev/sdv 
Apr  4 06:31:44 localhost multipathd: fork failed: Resource temporarily unavailable

Resolution

Please upgrade to device-mapper-multipath-0.4.7-30 or later which should address this issue.

Root Cause

  • The multipathd error in the messages file indicates that mpath_prio_emc is unable to communicate with the named device.

  • This is caused by a known issue, a file descriptor leak in device-mapper-multipath, you can refer this bugzilla for additional details:
    Bug 480170 - multipath test causes memory leak and eventual system deadlock

  • This bug has been closed with an resolution of errata to fix this issue.

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