# Dnf-makecache.timer is a major liability **URL:** \ **Category:** Rocky Linux Help & Support\ **Tags:** rocky-linux-9\ **Created:** [August 7, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371 "2024-08-07T23:22:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nzeid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@nzeid](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/nzeid)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371/1 "2024-08-07T23:22:09Z")
Posting this here to exchange notes before I go to wherever `dnf` lives. For utterly baffling reasons, the version of `dnf` on Rocky Linux 9.x (current one is 4.14) needs literally gigabytes of memory for `dnf makecache --timer`. Several of my VMs run at capacity, and the spike of memory caused by this job leaves the box swapping or frozen. I’ve been happily disabling this unit across all RHEL 9 boxes for maybe a year now but it stung me again on a new box a few days ago (I forgot to disable it) and now I’m wondering if anyone out there is even aware of this issue. ---
**Author:** ![anthyve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@anthyve](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/anthyve)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2024, 1:08pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371/2 "2024-08-12T13:08:51Z")
Upstream (Fedora) maintainers appear to be aware: > **[Talk: DNF operations use large amount of RAM and may fail in low-memory...](https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/talk-dnf-operations-use-large-amount-of-ram-and-may-fail-in-low-memory-environments/117196)** > > This is a discussion topic for the following Common Issue: You can discuss the problem and its solutions here, but please note that debugging and technical feedback should primarily go to the issue trackers (e.g. Bugzilla) linked in the Common... [https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show\_bug.cgi?id=1907030](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1907030) ---
**Author:** ![gerry666uk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@gerry666uk](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gerry666uk)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371/3 "2024-08-12T21:43:52Z")
But this is only on vms that are set up with low memory. It’s good they are trying to improve how DNF works, but once they fix this, some other process will end up being killed by low memory. ---
**Author:** ![nzeid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@nzeid](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/nzeid)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371/4 "2024-08-12T22:09:06Z")
> [@gerry666uk](#): > > But this is only on vms that are set up with low memory. Note: the last time this happened I had 1.5GB of headroom. That’s… a lot of memory for a package manager. ---
**Author:** ![mrd83](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/mrd83/32/4638_2.png) [@mrd83](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/mrd83)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371/5 "2024-08-14T22:55:48Z")
I routinely disable it, `systemctl disable dnf-makecache.timer` - which is easy if you utilize VM templates in vmware. The purpose for which it’s enabled by default eludes my comprehension… ---
**Author:** ![sweh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/sweh/32/1287_2.png) [@sweh](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/sweh)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 11:58pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371/6 "2024-08-14T23:58:40Z")
This is likely related to a problem I saw; [RL9 dnf OOMs with EPEL but only on one machine!](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rl9-dnf-ooms-with-epel-but-only-on-one-machine/14964/1) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/rockylinux/original/1X/91b7219eec10e30013422e4df76c1d898711a5d5.svg) [@system](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/dnf-makecache-timer-is-a-major-liability/15371/7 "2024-10-13T23:59:02Z")
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