Submission for comp-unix-microport

[UNIX-UNIX Cp]

Path: tolerant!voder!apple!rutgers!att!whuts!homxb!genesis!odyssey!gls
From: gls at odyssey.ATT.COM (g.l.sicherman)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport
Subject: superslow mode on 6386 WGS
Message-ID: <773 at odyssey.ATT.COM>
Date: 5 Jan 89 18:11:24 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, West Long Branch, NJ
Lines: 14

I'm running AT&T Vr3.2 on a 6836 WGS.  Our application programs
do a lot of message-passing.

Now and then the system goes into "superslow" mode.  Response time
is measured in minutes.  Keyboard input loses data if you type faster
than 15 cpm.

The only useful symptoms are (1) heavy floppy I/O (apparently), and
(2) the bdflush process seems to have a lot of CPU time (5 minutes).

Has anybody else seen this problem?  Fixed it?  And what's bdflush?
-- 
G. L. Sicherman
gls at odyssey.att.COM