Subject: can I bring Linux down by running "renice -20 cpu_intensive_process"?Depends on what the cpu_intensive_process does. If it tries to allocate lots of memory, maybe. If it's _just_ CPU (as in `perl -e '1 while 1'`), you get a chance that you can input some commands on a terminal to kill it.
SCHED_FIFO'ing or SCHED_RR'ing such a process is sudden death of course.
I have a Linux server (kernel 2.6.8.1 + Linux RAID1) which is a "backup"Why would you need it to run at -20 anyway?
machine: it gets the files from other servers, compresses it, writes to the
tape, checks md5sums etc.
It's been running for quite a bit, no problems with stability so far.
As I restarted the machine, I saw that the logging ends few minutes after IIn case of md5sum: it should not be. At least you should have been able to unblank the console pressing any key, or have sysrq available.
changed the priority of md5sum to -20.
So here is my question: is it possible to bring down the machine by simply
doing "renice -20 cpu_intensive_process"?