debian sarge server uses a lot of memory

cccc · 08-08-2005, 03:25 PM

hi

my debian sarge stable server uses a lot of RAM memory:

Code:

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        905404     898088       7316          0     142236     385300
-/+ buffers/cache:     370552     534852
Swap:      2931820        256    2931564

I cannot find out which process uses so much:

Code:

# ps aux
USER       PID %CPU %MEM   VSZ  RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.0  0.0  1492  504 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 init [2]  
root         2  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [keventd]
root         3  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        SN   Aug05   0:00 [ksoftirqd_CPU0]
root         4  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [kswapd]
root         5  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [bdflush]
root         6  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [kupdated]
root        99  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [kjournald]
root       246  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [kjournald]
root       247  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [kjournald]
root       248  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [kjournald]
root       359  0.0  0.0  1476  440 ?        S<s  Aug05   0:00 udevd
root       455  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 [khubd]
root      1340  0.0  0.0  2244  776 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /sbin/syslogd -a /var/lib/named/dev/log
root      1343  0.0  0.1  2188 1248 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /sbin/klogd
bind      1351  0.0  0.5 12968 4692 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/sbin/named -u bind -t /var/lib/named
bind      1354  0.0  0.5 12968 4692 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 /usr/sbin/named -u bind -t /var/lib/named
bind      1355  0.0  0.5 12968 4692 ?        S    Aug05   1:59 /usr/sbin/named -u bind -t /var/lib/named
bind      1356  0.0  0.5 12968 4692 ?        S    Aug05   0:02 /usr/sbin/named -u bind -t /var/lib/named
bind      1357  0.0  0.5 12968 4692 ?        S    Aug05   0:17 /usr/sbin/named -u bind -t /var/lib/named
message   1367  0.0  0.1  2084  912 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon-1 --system
root      1483  0.0  0.1  3656 1340 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/lib/postfix/master
postfix   1487  0.0  0.1  2996 1232 ?        S    Aug05   0:00 qmgr -l -t fifo -u -c
root      1496  0.0  0.1  3720 1548 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
root      1513  0.0  0.1  2848 1020 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/sbin/xinetd -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid -stayalive
root      1522  0.0  0.1  4436 1144 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/sbin/squid -D -sYC
proxy     1525  0.0 27.8 255124 252572 ?     S    Aug05   5:03 (squid) -D -sYC
proxy     1526  0.0  0.0  1336  288 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 (unlinkd)
daemon    1529  0.0  0.0  1672  616 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
root      1532  0.0  0.0  1756  820 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
root      1537  0.0  0.6  9384 6280 ?        Ss   Aug05   0:00 /usr/bin/perl /usr/share/webmin/miniserv.pl /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf
root      1546  0.0  0.0  1484  476 tty2     Ss+  Aug05   0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
root      1547  0.0  0.0  1484  476 tty3     Ss+  Aug05   0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
root      1548  0.0  0.0  1484  476 tty4     Ss+  Aug05   0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
root      1549  0.0  0.0  1484  476 tty5     Ss+  Aug05   0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
root      1550  0.0  0.0  1484  476 tty6     Ss+  Aug05   0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
root      3220  0.0  0.7 14404 6448 ?        Ss   Aug07   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  3240  0.0  0.7 14548 6600 ?        S    Aug07   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  3241  0.0  0.7 14540 6600 ?        S    Aug07   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  3242  0.0  0.7 14548 6604 ?        S    Aug07   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  3251  0.0  0.7 14548 6600 ?        S    Aug07   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  3252  0.0  0.7 14556 6604 ?        S    Aug07   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
root      3285  0.0  0.1  3052 1116 ?        Ss   Aug07   0:00 /usr/bin/dirmngr --daemon --sh
root      4337  0.0  0.3  6976 3100 ?        Ss   06:25   0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd -F
www-data  4591  0.0  0.7 14548 6604 ?        S    11:42   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  4595  0.0  0.7 14548 6604 ?        S    11:42   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  4596  0.0  0.7 14548 6604 ?        S    11:42   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
www-data  4675  0.0  0.7 14548 6604 ?        S    13:38   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL
root      4842  0.0  0.0  1484  476 tty1     Ss+  17:41   0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
postfix   4954  0.0  0.1  2964 1096 ?        S    20:50   0:00 pickup -l -t fifo -u -c
root      4993  0.0  0.2  7320 2268 ?        Ss   22:15   0:00 sshd: root@notty
root      4995  0.0  0.2  7320 2268 ?        S    22:15   0:00 sshd: root@notty
root      4997  0.0  0.1  3136 1036 ?        Ss   22:15   0:00 /usr/lib/sftp-server
root      4998  0.0  0.1  3076 1032 ?        Ss   22:15   0:00 /usr/lib/sftp-server
root      4999  0.0  0.2  7312 2240 ?        Rs   22:16   0:00 sshd: root@pts/0
root      5001  0.0  0.2  7312 2240 ?        S    22:16   0:00 sshd: root@pts/0
root      5003  0.0  0.1  3048 1660 pts/0    Ss   22:16   0:00 -bash
root      5012  0.0  0.0  2480  864 pts/0    R+   22:17   0:00 ps aux

makuyl · 08-08-2005, 03:30 PM

As I see it, most of your memory is available. "used" just says it's reserved. buffers and cache keep recent stuff in memory if it would be needed again. If something else needs memory, it's freed from those.

Moloko · 08-08-2005, 04:56 PM

Linux will use all memory for it's processes. Most of it is disk cache of previous operations. The only indication of having too little memory (or a memory problem) is heavy use of the swap, which is not the case.

Monitor the memory usage over time (weeks) and you'll get an idea of how it is used by the kernel and the system. It's perfectly fine to have just a few mb of space left.