There have been reports of high I/O and load when using recent 4.15.0-xx kernels.
Currently, the kernel 4.15.0-xx comes as default kernel with our Ubuntu 18.04 OS plans.
We have observed the issue with machines with kernel version 4.15.0-xx where the disk latency increases causing an I/O freeze and subsequent increase in processor load.
There have been multiple bug reports filed by users regarding this as well, below are few for reference
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-signed-hwe/+bug/1793013
We recommend upgrading the kernel version to 4.18.0-xx to avoid any such undesired behaviour impacting the server performance.
You can find your existing kernel version with below command
uname -r
The upgrade to kernel 4.18.0-xx can simply be done by installing the required kernel and its header package using the below command
apt-get install linux-image-4.18.0-25-generic linux-headers-4.18.0-25-generic
You have to reboot your VM once to get the newer kernel in effect.
Once you reboot you can verify the kernel in effect with the aforementioned command
uname -r
Note: Please make sure that there is no kernel version specific dependencies in your setup before proceeding with the kernel upgrade.
We at E2E Networks always encourage our customers to pursue the best practices of security to keep their systems updated, protected and patched against recognized vulnerabilities.
If you have any queries regarding the patching/updates on E2E Networks infrastructure, you may write an email to cloud-platform@e2enetworks.com.
