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SHawarden avatar Ubuntu

Unit user-.slice failed to load properly: Invalid argument

us flag
SHawarden

I have been trying to set up resource controls on 22.04.1 login node so users can't degrade the system by running anything too intensive. I looked at using cgroups but apparently since it's a systemd system, user-.slice is what I'm after. Unfortunately I can't even get the default service to launch.

❯ sudo systemctl status user-.slice
Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of user-.slice changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.
○ user-.slice - User Slice of UID
Loaded: error (Reason: Unit user-.slice failed to load properly, please adjust/correct and reload service manager: Invalid argument)
Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/user-.slice.d
└─10-defaults.conf
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:user@.service(5)

I can't see what argument is invalid and I have reloaded the units with sudo systemctl daemon-reload but it still says they've change...

❯ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
❯ sudo systemctl restart user-.slice
Failed to start user-.slice: Unit user-.slice failed to load properly, please adjust/correct and reload service manager: Invalid argument
See system logs and 'systemctl status user-.slice' for details.
❯ systemctl status user-.slice
Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of user-.slice changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.
○ user-.slice - User Slice of UID
Loaded: error (Reason: Unit user-.slice failed to load properly, please adjust/correct and reload service manager: Invalid argument)
Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/user-.slice.d
└─10-defaults.conf
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs: man:user@.service(5)

The main configs are currently the defaults:

❯ cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/user.slice
#  SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
#
#  This file is part of systemd.
#
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
#  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.

[Unit]
Description=User and Session Slice
Documentation=man:systemd.special(7)
Before=slices.target
❯ cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/user-.slice.d/10-defaults.conf
#  SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
#
#  This file is part of systemd.
#
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
#  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.

[Unit]
Description=User Slice of UID %j
Documentation=man:user@.service(5)
After=systemd-user-sessions.service
StopWhenUnneeded=yes

[Slice]
TasksMax=33%

Ultimately I just want to add 2 settings for memory and cpu caps:

❯ cat 50-user-caps.conf
[Slice]
CPUQuota=400%
MemoryMax=4G

Any clue what's going on?

Answered by @steeldriver

You don't interact with the user-.slice service, but the user-UID.slice ones that automatically pick up the drop ins.

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hr flag
steeldriver
I *think* the `Invalid Argument` is complaining about is the (missing) UID of the slice in the command itself (not the unit file(s)) - it works for me with `systemctl status user-1000.slice` or more generally `systemctl status user-$(id -u).slice`
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SHawarden avatar
us flag
SHawarden
I'm trying to apply the slice to all users though, not just on a given uid. The documentation implies that `user-.slice` applies to everyone.
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SHawarden avatar
us flag
SHawarden
@steeldriver Ahh, I see, The `user-.slice` service isn't actually a service at all. It automatically applies to each individual `user-UID.slice`... and is working perfectly. thank you! If you make this the answer I'll mark it.
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avatar Ubuntu
hr flag
steeldriver

I think the issue here is one of understanding the slice naming convention - in particular, to which slice the dash "belongs". From man systemd.slice:

   The name of the slice encodes the location in the tree. The name
   consists of a dash-separated series of names, which describes the path
   to the slice from the root slice. The root slice is named -.slice.
   Example: foo-bar.slice is a slice that is located within foo.slice,
   which in turn is located in the root slice -.slice.

So in the case of the user-slice hierarchy, the valid systemctl status commands are

  • systemctl status user-$(id -u).slice or for example systemctl status user-1000.slice

  • systemctl status user.slice

  • systemctl status -- -.slice for the root slice

where the -- in the case of the root slice is necessary to prevent -.slice being parsed as a command line option.

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