Re: [Vserver] memory : "free" gives wrong numbers

From: Herbert Poetzl <herbert_at_13thfloor.at>
Date: Tue 18 Oct 2005 - 22:28:04 BST
Message-ID: <20051018212804.GA11205@MAIL.13thfloor.at>

On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 08:48:09PM +0200, Xavier Montagutelli wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> The "free" command gives me false number on vservers. Can someone reproduce
> the same as below :
>
> *) Host
>
> linux 2.6.12.4, vs 2.0
> server memory : 5 Go
>
> *) On vserver #1 :
>
> [root@vs1] # free
> total used free
> Mem: 5128164 1373868 3754296
> -/+ buffers/cache: -3077072 8205236 <<<--- negative number
>
> [root@vs1] # ps auxw | awk '{rss+=$6} END {print rss}'
> 1991724
>
> *) On vserver #2 :
> [root@vs2] # free -g
> total used free
> Mem: 4 0 4
> -/+ buffers/cache: 4091 9 <<<--- 4To used !!
>
> *) On the host :
>
> [root@host] # free
> total used free
> Mem: 5128164 4964772 163392
> -/+ buffers/cache: 512404 4615760
>
> [root@host] # vps auxw | awk '$4 == "vs1" {rss+=$8} END {print rss}'
> 1989684
>
> So with "ps" on the vserver or "vps" on the host, vserver #1 seems to
> consume nearly 2Go of RSS. vserver-stat gives the same information.
> But free gives a negative number for used memory on the vserver #1.
> And on vserver #2, memory used is ... erk ... interesting.

yes, interesting indeed ... will look into that asap,
but I guess I need your help on that (or a machine with
more than 4GB of memory :)

> Do you think this is related to vserver, perhaps because of a total
> memory exceeding 4 Go (32 bits) ? Or is it a (known) limit of the
> "free" command ?

no idea yet, but we had some reports of free showing
funny values for the buffers/caches ...
(which are hard to get right, with shared resources)

best,
Herbert

> Thx
> --
> Xavier Montagutelli
> Service Commun Informatique
> Universite de Limoges
> Tel : +33 555457720
> Cle GPG : http://pgp.mit.edu 1024D/175CE198
> _______________________________________________
> Vserver mailing list
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> http://list.linux-vserver.org/mailman/listinfo/vserver
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Received on Tue Oct 18 22:28:23 2005

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