RE: [hobbit] Memory check

["David Gilmore" <david (at) stenhouseconsulting.com>]

Ok I understand the concept.  However, I don't want to continue to receive
Alerts because Linux is doing exactly what it is designed to do.  Does
anyone have a script that can clear the buffers and stop hobbit from paging
me?  Can I modify the script to only alert when REAL memory is at 100% or
higher?  Or do I have to reboot my server ever morning to resolve this
alert?  I currently have the alerts disabled, but I am concerned that I
could miss a critical error

Dave
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> hobbit-return-5584-david=stenhouseconsulting.com (at) hswn.dk 
> [mailto:hobbit-return-5584-david=stenhouseconsulting.com (at) hswn.
> dk] On Behalf Of Henrik Stoerner
> Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 1:45 AM
> To: hobbit (at) hswn.dk
> Subject: Re: [hobbit] Memory check
> 
> On Tue, Feb 07, 2006 at 07:41:23PM -0500, David Gilmore wrote:
> > My hobbit server (Fedora FC4) has 1.25 gig of memory 
> installed.  When 
> > the server is backed, up using Retrospect client, REAL memory usage 
> > spikes from 34% to 97% and stays at that level until a 
> reboot.  When I 
> > check the system performance, using the built in system 
> monitor, user memory is at 18.9%.
> > Dell Open Manage is using the most memory at 3% with a few 
> additional 
> > processes between 1% and 2%.  Everything else is well under 
> 1%.  What 
> > exactly is hobbit reporting on when it says that 
> Physical/Real memory 
> > is at 97%, Actual memory is at 17%, and Swap is at 0%?
> 
> Hobbit reports the output from the "free" command. It 
> probably looks somewhat like this after you've run a backup:
> 
>              total       used       free     shared    buffers cached
> Mem:        646432     642172       4260          0     167676 136068
> -/+ buffers/cache:     338428     308004
> Swap:       511992          4     511988
> 
> The "Mem" line here tells you that there is 640 MB RAM 
> installed, and all except 4 MB is being "used". However, a 
> lot of that is used for "buffers" and "cache", which is the 
> Linux kernel's dynamically resized disk cache; if an 
> application needs more RAM that is "free", the disk 
> cache/buffers are discarded and the memory made available to 
> the application.
> 
> So that's why the "-/+ buffers/cache" line is interesting: 
> This shows the used/free memory count if the buffers/cached 
> is counted as "free"
> memory. Hobbit report this as the "actual" memory count.
> 
> So a Linux system will practically always have a REAL memory 
> usage close to 100% (Linus Torvalds once said that "unused 
> RAM is *wasted* RAM, and there's no reason to spend lots of 
> money on something that isn't used" - quoting from memory). 
> The ACTUAL memory usage (should) be a lot less, and is what 
> you'll want to keep an eye on.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Henrik
> 
> 
> To unsubscribe from the hobbit list, send an e-mail to 
> hobbit-unsubscribe (at) hswn.dk
> 
> 
>