Back to Basics: OOM Killer. Survival Fundamentals

What to do when there is no free memory and you still need to allocate it? Maybe free it by "killing" some process... But which one and how to do it? The built-in Linux kernel mechanism comes to the rescue — your faithful friend and helper OOM Killer!

In this talk we will look at how memory is organised in Linux and why an OOM (Out Of Memory) situation occurs. You will learn how OOM Killer chooses processes to terminate, how to avoid its "visit" and keep your system stable. We will also discuss how OOM Killer is used in Kubernetes.

It will be useful for both beginners and experienced engineers who want to fill in the gaps in their knowledge and refresh the theory of working with memory in Linux.