midaemon aborts with "impossible to allocate the ki buffers" error

  • Document ID:KM00356827
  • Creation Date:06-Feb-2013
  • Modified Date:03-Dec-2014
    • Micro Focus Products:
      performance agent
      operations agent
      glanceplus

Summary

In certain systems, midaemon(1) fails to start if the base_pagesize(5) tunable is set to a non-default value. status.mi shows the following error message: mi_ki_init - impossible to allocate the ki buffers Invalid argument. The issue has been fixed in OS patch PHKL_43221

Question

On certain HP-UX 11.31, midaemon may fail to start with the following error message:

      mi_ki_init - impossible to allocate the ki buffers
      Invalid argument.

The following message may also be found in the /var/opt/perf/status.mi file:

       MI: Thu Nov 29 09:18:12 2012
      == Fatal Nums Error == 11.10.035 2012-08-22_1931  ==
      File:   /svn-share2/BLR.ovpa.11.10.r/hp1123ipf/hpsw-oa/PA/numsVob/hp/11.0/nums.C   Line: 299   Product id: MWA
      System: xxxxxxxx  B.11.31 ia64
      User:   root              Date: Thu Nov 29 09:18:12
      Errno:  2 (No such file or directory)

Answer

This real problem is not on OVPA or OA11.  The real issue is actually on the HP-UX kernel side.  Specifically, the kernel is refusing to allocate the KI buffers midaemon is requesting (regardless of whether midaemon is starting with default values or MIPARMS have been provided).

The issue is related to the base_pagesize kernel tunable.  If base_pagesize has been set to a non-default value, the issue will occur.  This is particularly common on HPVM hosts, as they require the base_pagesize to be set to 64.

This problem has been fixed by the HP-UX kernel team in CR QXCR1001254503. This fix has been included in HP-UX patch PHKL_43221.

There is a workaround which consists on setting the base_pagesize tuneable back to its defaut value of 4.  This workaround, however, would not be acceptable on HPVM hosts.