What is kscand

[JoshPet]

Often I have a process of "kscand" running for 5 or 6 hours at a time. :p

What is this.... and why does it run so long? Seems to really bog down my server.

[QT]

Originally posted by JoshPet
Often I have a process of "kscand" running for 5 or 6 hours at a time. :p

What is this.... and why does it run so long? Seems to really bog down my server.

The kscand process is part of the kernel itself which scans system memory looking for available memory pages. During period of high memory usage or a lot of activity in memory, kscand may run more frequently or take more time to check all memory pages.

You may find that if your server starts using swap space, kscand will take up even more CPU and you'll notice more of a performance hit because of the disk access time required to check for free memory pages in swap areas.

The "top" command will show kscand running for 5-6 hours or more .. but since kscand is always running, this simply means it has used 5-6 hours of CPU time since your server has booted. If your server has been running for days and weeks, a few hours of CPU time doesn't mean much. :)

[JoshPet]

Thanks! :)

I *thought* it was making my system sluggish last night, but I think that it was just the network issue most of us experienced last night.

Thanks for the explanation.... glad it's nothing to worry about. :)