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  1. RHEL
  2. RHEL-12008

The `sar -B` reports '%vmeff' beyond 100

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    • rhel-8.0.0
    • sysstat
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    • Known Issue
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      .The `%vmeff` metric from the `sysstat` package displays incorrect values

      The `sysstat` package provides the `%vmeff` metric to measure the page reclaim efficiency. The values of the `%vmeff` column returned by the `sar -B` command are incorrect because `sysstat` does not parse all relevant `/proc/vmstat` values provided by later kernel versions. To work around this problem, you can calculate the `%vmeff` value manually from the `/proc/vmstat` file. For details, see link:https://access.redhat.com/solutions/7027076[Why the `sar(1)` tool reports `%vmeff` values beyond 100 % in RHEL 8 and RHEL 9?]
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      .The `%vmeff` metric from the `sysstat` package displays incorrect values The `sysstat` package provides the `%vmeff` metric to measure the page reclaim efficiency. The values of the `%vmeff` column returned by the `sar -B` command are incorrect because `sysstat` does not parse all relevant `/proc/vmstat` values provided by later kernel versions. To work around this problem, you can calculate the `%vmeff` value manually from the `/proc/vmstat` file. For details, see link: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/7027076 [Why the `sar(1)` tool reports `%vmeff` values beyond 100 % in RHEL 8 and RHEL 9?]
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      Description:
      The `sar -B` commands report the paging statistics where the output
      includes '%vmeff' column.
      The `%vmeff` as per the man page is [pgsteal / pgscan].

      However, the sysstat package shipped with RHEL 8 is reporting the '%vmeff'
      value beyond 100. It appears the number of pages being stolen is getting
      high from the number of pages scanned causing the percentage to go beyond 100.

      Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
      sysstat-11.7.3

      How reproducible:
      Always

      Steps to Reproduce:
      1. Stress the system for memory utilization so that the cache is reclaimed & swapping occurs.
      2. sar -B
      3. And look for the `%vmeff` column

      Actual results:

      1. sar -B 1
        Linux 4.18.0-477.13.1.el8_8.x86_64 (8rhel) 08/02/2023 x86_64 (2 CPU)

      11:20:59 PM pgpgin/s pgpgout/s fault/s majflt/s pgfree/s pgscank/s pgscand/s pgsteal/s %vmeff

      11:22:33 PM 2392.00 59816.00 267663.00 49.00 7591.00 72128.00 221023.00 13772.00 4.70
      11:22:34 PM 0.00 44344.00 10756.00 0.00 11213.00 9747.00 12186.00 21048.00 95.96
      11:22:35 PM 0.00 56852.00 4489.00 0.00 6734.00 11552.00 8879.00 12422.00 60.80
      11:22:36 PM 0.00 145852.00 0.00 0.00 5919.00 40928.00 33272.00 9052.00 12.20
      11:22:37 PM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 451.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
      11:22:38 PM 0.00 107164.71 74018.63 0.00 72985.29 34425.49 60266.67 135484.31 143.08 <<---------------
      11:22:39 PM 0.00 661857.43 168127.72 0.00 171582.18 136464.36 273825.74 337794.06 82.33
      11:22:40 PM 6345.16 396100.00 97660.48 238.71 101485.48 164530.65 189000.81 199556.45 56.45
      11:22:41 PM 221642.11 420126.32 106085.53 8265.79 108259.21 179317.11 33044.74 208792.11 98.32
      11:22:42 PM 188316.00 194596.00 50992.00 7308.00 53776.00 121291.00 0.00 100698.00 83.02
      11:22:44 PM 126050.60 120689.16 37369.28 4750.00 34137.95 205112.65 0.00 62277.11 30.36
      11:22:45 PM 167085.11 156646.81 46920.21 6481.91 42398.94 81422.34 0.00 78972.34 96.99
      11:22:46 PM 3776.00 324.00 446.00 77.00 4999.00 4992.00 0.00 9760.00 195.51 <<---------------
      11:22:47 PM 101304.00 91288.00 29284.00 4021.00 24876.00 46793.00 0.00 44660.00 95.44
      11:22:48 PM 64076.00 57072.00 17995.00 2567.00 15425.00 29758.00 0.00 28138.00 94.56
      11:22:49 PM 185700.00 177892.00 51774.00 7266.00 47268.00 91999.00 0.00 89062.00 96.81
      11:22:50 PM 20348.00 35032.00 6457.00 734.00 8275.00 16884.00 0.00 15244.00 90.29
      11:22:51 PM 52048.00 64032.00 16016.00 1857.00 16275.00 32504.00 0.00 30404.00 93.54
      11:22:52 PM 128552.00 118348.00 36891.00 4865.00 33756.00 61833.00 0.00 61324.00 99.18
      11:22:53 PM 50684.00 57192.00 15486.00 1878.00 11881.00 25835.00 0.00 21800.00 84.38
      11:22:54 PM 1524.00 48.00 273.00 38.00 4130.00 3665.00 0.00 7256.00 197.98 <<---------------

      Expected results:
      The value of %vmeff should be <=100%

      When the same test is run in RHEL 7 with the same memory & the swappiness value

      1. sar -B 1
        Linux 3.10.0-1160.88.1.el7.x86_64 (7rhel) 08/02/2023 x86_64 (2 CPU)

      11:21:06 PM pgpgin/s pgpgout/s fault/s majflt/s pgfree/s pgscank/s pgscand/s pgsteal/s %vmeff

      11:21:39 PM 714.43 209566.17 51124.38 23.38 1208.96 1022.39 905.47 957.71 49.68
      11:21:41 PM 223.33 102963.33 55827.50 20.00 72180.00 71380.83 5201.67 71120.00 92.87
      11:21:42 PM 125.00 234335.00 73311.25 6.25 92026.25 88120.00 28610.00 89993.75 77.10
      11:21:43 PM 0.00 235892.75 68480.43 0.00 68121.01 31860.87 85258.70 67514.49 57.65
      11:21:44 PM 39.67 174941.32 39371.90 1.65 39785.95 17560.33 64147.93 39501.65 48.34
      11:21:45 PM 423.81 625538.10 247097.62 38.10 438609.52 85995.24 18441.67 73275.00 70.16
      11:21:46 PM 182.61 63239.13 59243.48 18.48 43644.57 46348.91 12268.48 43234.78 73.76
      11:21:47 PM 3107.69 327111.54 175599.04 121.15 188900.96 108803.85 55619.23 105988.46 64.46
      11:21:48 PM 878.79 260593.94 62313.64 101.52 62625.76 35265.15 80795.45 61692.42 53.16
      11:21:49 PM 49.06 237984.91 58366.04 11.32 58866.98 32422.64 117079.25 58439.62 39.09

      Additional info:
      Something similar was reported on Github:
      https://github.com/sysstat/sysstat/issues/343

              rh-ee-lzaoral Lukáš Zaoral
              rhn-support-aquadri Abdul Raheman Quadri
              Lukáš Zaoral Lukáš Zaoral
              qe-baseos-daemons qe-baseos-daemons
              Mugdha Soni Mugdha Soni
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