What are the consequences for a container when the set memory usage limit is exceeded?

When the memory usage limit set for a container (for example, in Docker using the --memory parameter) is exceeded, the operating system may take several measures:

• The container may be stopped or restarted with an Out Of Memory (OOM) error.
• In Linux, the OOM Killer mechanism will activate, terminating processes inside the container to free up memory.
• The container may stop functioning correctly, leading to failures and data loss.

Thus, exceeding the memory limit results in the container or processes inside it being abruptly terminated, which is important to consider when configuring resources.