The kernel allocates memory in units of pages. Virtual memory uses these pages to map between the virtual and real memory address spaces. Older versions of the Linux kernel set the size of these pages to 4 kilobytes. In cases where a lot of virtual memory is used, such as in large database servers, this small size can place a heavy load on the VM subsystem. HugeTLBFS allows for much larger pages, which significantly improves performance under heavy VM load conditions. |