{"id":3090,"date":"2014-02-07T01:25:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T06:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/2014\/02\/07\/linux-check-memory-usage\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T23:10:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T04:10:52","slug":"check-memory-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/server\/linux\/check-memory-usage\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Check the Memory Usage on Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"featured<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Understanding Linux memory usage and how to check for used and free memory or RAM in Linux can be difficult. But once you learn about the Linux page cache<\/a> and how to read the status of it, it\u2019s really quite simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linux very efficiently caches frequently used files from the hard drive, to very fast to access RAM on the server. Data is stored electronically in RAM, so its speed is not limited by physical magnetic heads or spindle motors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this guide I\u2019ll go over Linux free memory<\/strong>, and how to properly read Linux memory info<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linux free -m<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most common way you\u2019ll see on the web to check for free memory in Linux is by using the free<\/strong> command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the free -m<\/strong> command to check your Linux memory usage, displays the values as MB<\/strong> instead of KB<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people will run this command and panic thinking they only have 1 MB<\/span> of free memory on the server:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

root@server [~]# free -m<\/strong>\ntotal    used    free    shared    buffers    cached Mem: \n1024<\/span>    1022<\/span>    1<\/span>        0        0        822<\/span> \n-\/+ buffers\/cache: 200<\/span>    823<\/span> \nSwap: 0    0    0<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The free<\/strong> column beside -\/+ buffers\/cache<\/strong> with 823 MB<\/span> is the actual free memory available to Linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1024 MB<\/span> is the total system memory available, which would be physical RAM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 MB<\/span> and 823 MB<\/span> both show free<\/strong> because an application has access to both for memory storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Linux page cache<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Linux uses something called a page cache in order to cache frequently hit files from the hard drive into memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is an awesome helpful tool called vmtouch<\/a> which allows you to directly interact with the Linux page cache. Below I\u2019m using this to check if any parts of a 100 MB<\/strong> log file called access_log<\/strong> are in the page cache already:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
root@server [~]# vmtouch -v \/home\/access_log<\/strong> \n\/home\/access_log [      ] 0\/25642<\/span>\nFiles: 1      \nDirectories: 0   \nResident Pages: 0\/25642<\/span>  0\/100M<\/span>  0%<\/span>          \nElapsed: 0.000568 seconds<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You can see that 0\/25642<\/span> of all resident pages<\/strong> that make up this file are in the page cache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is also represented as 0\/100 MB<\/span> worth of that file\u2019s data, or 0%<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here I\u2019m using the time<\/strong> command to show how long a grep<\/strong> search takes initially:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
root@server [~]# time grep wp-login.php access_log -c<\/strong> 702754  \nreal    0m30.056s<\/span> \nuser    0m0.192s \nsys     0m0.082s<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
It took 30.056 seconds<\/span> to read that file from the hard drive, let\u2019s see if any of it made it to the page cache:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
root@server [~]# vmtouch -v \/home\/access_log<\/strong> \n\/home\/access_log [OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO] 25642\/25642<\/span>             \nFiles: 1      \nDirectories: 0   \nResident Pages: 25642\/25642<\/span>  100M\/100M<\/span>  100%<\/span>          \nElapsed: 0.003133 seconds<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
All 25642\/25642<\/span> resident pages<\/strong> are in the page cache now, and all 100 MB<\/span> worth of data, or 100%<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know the whole access_log<\/strong> file is in memory, let\u2019s see what happens when we try to search in the file again:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
root@server [~]# time grep wp-admin access_log -c<\/strong> 103161  \nreal    0m0.168s<\/span> \nuser    0m0.137s \nsys     0m0.030s<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
It took 30.056 seconds<\/span> reading the file from disk, down to just 0.168 seconds<\/span> reading it from RAM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s over a 17,000%<\/strong> speed increase! This is why I say that Linux uses memory very efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same thing applies to your applications and scripts that run on the server. Linux will try to move them to the page cache for quicker access. If another application needs more memory, it can simply take it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This throws a lot of people off because they see Linux is using<\/strong> a lot of memory, while in reality it\u2019s using it to speed things along while the full memory available to the server isn\u2019t actively needed for running applications.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Linux sar -r<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you wanted to take a look at your Linux memory usage historically then the Linux sar command<\/a> is a great tool which uses System Activity Report<\/strong> logs to pull historical usage data from your server:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
root@server [~]# sar -r<\/strong> \n10:06:01 PM    kbmemfree<\/span> kbmemused<\/span>  %memused<\/span>     kbbuffers  kbcached<\/span>  kbcommit   %commit     \n10:06:01 PM    688956<\/span>    359620<\/span>     34.30<\/span>        0          142912<\/span>    0           0.00 \n10:16:01 PM    688792<\/span>    359784<\/span>     34.31<\/span>        0          143000<\/span>    0           0.00 \n10:26:01 PM    678744<\/span>    369832<\/span>     35.27<\/span>        0          152968<\/span>    0           0.00 \n10:36:01 PM    678052<\/span>    370524<\/span>     35.34<\/span>        0          153516<\/span>    0           0.00 \n10:46:01 PM    677532<\/span>    371044<\/span>     35.39<\/span>        0          154024<\/span>    0           0.00 \n10:56:01 PM    676688<\/span>    371888<\/span>     35.47<\/span>        0          154036<\/span>    0           0.00 \n11:06:01 PM    676160<\/span>    372416<\/span>     35.52<\/span>        0          154216<\/span>    0           0.00 \n11:16:01 PM    3644<\/span>      1044932<\/span>    99.65<\/span>        0          60588<\/span>     0           0.00 \nAverage:       682327<\/span>    366249<\/span>     34.93<\/span>        0          113811<\/span>    0           0.00 <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The kbmemfree<\/span> column shows how much memory was free<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kbmemused<\/span> column shows how much memory was used<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The %memused<\/span> column shows how much memory was used<\/strong> as a percentage of total memory available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kbcached<\/span> column shows how much memory was cached<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The command below goes through your sar<\/strong> logs and shows anytime that your server\u2019s memory is spiking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When kbmemused<\/span> is over 917504 KB<\/span> or 896 MB<\/span>, and kbcached<\/span> is under 131072 KB<\/span> or 128MB<\/span> this command will output the memory usage stats from sar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doing it this way we can ensure that we\u2019re only looking at times when our actual free memory<\/strong> on the server has dipped below 128MB<\/strong>. That way we don\u2019t start panicking when the server says 99%<\/span> of memory is being used, but in reality that memory is being used by the Linux page cache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
for log in `ls -1 \/var\/log\/sa\/sa[0-9]* | sed 's#@##'`; do echo $log; sar -r -f $log | egrep -v \"Linux|kbmemfree\" | awk '{ if ($4>=917504<\/strong> && $7<=131072<\/strong>) print $0}'; echo \"\"; done | sed 's#\\(\/var\/log.*\\)#\\1\\n--------------kbmemfree kbmemused %memused kbbuffers kbcached kbcommit %commit#' | less<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Here is the output from the above command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\/var\/log\/sa\/sa06 \n--------------  kbmemfree<\/span> kbmemused<\/span>   %memused<\/span>   kbbuffers  kbcached<\/span>  kbcommit   %commit\n12:16:01 AM     25208<\/span>     1023368<\/span>     97.60<\/span>      0          37536<\/span>     0          0.00 \n12:26:01 AM     23708<\/span>     1024868<\/span>     97.74<\/span>      0          38792<\/span>     0          0.00 \n12:36:01 AM     13532<\/span>     1035044<\/span>     98.71<\/span>      0          41756<\/span>     0          0.00<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\/proc\/meminfo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
With Linux there is a \/proc<\/strong> pseudo-file system that doesn\u2019t contain any real phyical files, but does allow you to take a peak at how the Linux kernel is controlling the system via various config files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of these is called \/proc\/meminfo<\/strong> and this is where commands like free<\/strong> get their data from. You can directly look at these values yourself by simply accessing this pseudo-file:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
root@server [~]# egrep \"MemTotal|MemFree|Cached\" \/proc\/meminfo<\/strong> \nMemTotal:        1048576 kB<\/span> \nMemFree:          842752 kB<\/span> \nCached:           841728 kB<\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The VPS I\u2019m looking at has 1048576 kB<\/span> of total system memory, which is 1024 MB<\/span>, or 1 GB<\/span> of RAM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of that total available memory on the VPS, 842752 kB<\/span> or 823 MB<\/span> of that RAM is not in use, or free to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is 841728 kB<\/span> or 822 MB<\/span> of memory currently being used by the Linux page cache to speed things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know from the earlier testing I did, that 100 MB worth of that page cache usage is from my 100 MB log file that got placed in the page cache for quick access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Understanding Linux memory usage and how to check for used and free memory or RAM in Linux can be difficult. But once you learn about the Linux page cache and how to read the status of it, it’s really quite simple. Linux very efficiently caches frequently used files from the hard drive, to very fast Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57020,"featured_media":129254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Check the Memory Usage on Linux<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to check Linux memory usage to make sure you're looking at the correct Linux free memory values and find out about the Linux page cache.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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1 MB<\/span> free<\/strong> plus the 822 MB<\/span> cached<\/strong> gives the 823 MB<\/span> of memory actually free<\/strong> to use if needed.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n