Track down memory problems

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Level 1

5 points

Track down memory problems

I've got a MacPro 2.8 Quad-Core Xeon w/ 16 GB of 1066 DDR3 memory. It basically acts as a mysql database server for an application we run called MacPractice. It also runs the apache web server. As you can see istat menus is reporting 7.35 gigs free - Activity monitor is showing 4.58 gigs free, yet I have 214.80 GB!!!! of page outs. I've also posted a txt dump from the system memory of activity monitor. Istats monitor says there's free memory, activity monitor says there's free memory, so why the extraordinarily high number of page outs? How do I track this down?

Active Memory: 7.67 GB

Free Memory: 3.68 GB

Wired Memory: 1.04 GB

Used Memory: 12.31 GB

Inactive Memory: 3.60 GB

Total VM: 208.85 GB

Number of processes: 78

PID Process Name User CPU Real Mem Virtual Mem

0 kernel_task root 0.9 858.6 MB 7.79 GB

1 launchd root 0.1 1.4 MB 2.40 GB

10 kextd root 0.0 5.8 MB 2.39 GB

11 DirectoryService root 0.1 12.5 MB 2.40 GB

12 notifyd root 0.0 684 KB 2.36 GB

13 diskarbitrationd root 0.1 2.6 MB 2.39 GB

14 configd root 0.0 3.8 MB 2.42 GB

15 syslogd root 0.3 972 KB 2.40 GB

16 blued root 0.0 4.8 MB 2.40 GB

17 distnoted daemon 0.0 1.7 MB 2.39 GB

18 mDNSResponder _mdnsrespo 0.1 2.9 MB 2.40 GB

32 securityd root 0.1 3.4 MB 2.40 GB

33 coreservicesd root 0.7 22.9 MB 2.42 GB

43 ioupsd root 0.0 1.7 MB 2.36 GB

49 ntpd root 0.0 1.1 MB 2.32 GB

50 httpd root 0.0 9.9 MB 2.34 GB

51 krb5kdc root 0.0 1.9 MB 2.34 GB

54 usbmuxd _usbmuxd 0.0 2.1 MB 2.37 GB

55 SystemStarter root 0.0 1.0 MB 2.35 GB

59 RFBRegisterMDNS root 0.0 1.7 MB 2.33 GB

61 mds root 0.4 70.8 MB 2.61 GB

62 loginwindow admin 0.0 10.0 MB 2.95 GB

63 KernelEventAgent root 0.0 1.1 MB 2.35 GB

65 hidd root 0.0 1,000 KB 2.35 GB

66 fseventsd root 0.0 4.9 MB 2.40 GB

68 dynamic_pager root 0.0 760 KB 2.32 GB

74 autofsd root 0.0 1.0 MB 2.35 GB

77 MPTimer root 0.0 11.6 MB 2.41 GB

79 iStatLocalDaemon root 0.2 4.4 MB 2.77 GB

99 WindowServer _windowser 1.4 42.9 MB 3.01 GB

179 MacPracticeServer root 0.0 1.5 MB 2.34 GB

206 cvmsServ root 0.0 864 KB 2.33 GB

217 coreaudiod _coreaudio 0.0 3.4 MB 2.38 GB

223 launchd admin 0.1 1.4 MB 2.40 GB

227 Dock admin 0.1 15.1 MB 2.98 GB

228 SystemUIServer admin 0.8 57.0 MB 3.02 GB

229 Finder admin 3.5 27.9 MB 2.98 GB

231 fontd admin 0.0 3.8 MB 2.42 GB

251 pboard admin 0.0 848 KB 2.32 GB

253 httpd _www 0.0 6.8 MB 2.34 GB

255 UserEventAgent admin 0.0 6.7 MB 2.42 GB

258 ARDAgent admin 0.0 6.2 MB 2.90 GB

263 AirPort Base Station Agen admin 0.0 6.0 MB 2.91 GB

264 iStatLocal admin 0.0 4.9 MB 2.40 GB

267 AppleVNCServer admin 2.8 33.3 MB 2.92 GB

274 FreeMemory Pro admin 0.2 18.5 MB 2.96 GB

355 HazelHelper admin 0.0 12.2 MB 2.91 GB

405 diskimages-helper root 0.0 10.0 MB 2.42 GB

409 hdiejectd root 0.0 1.9 MB 2.39 GB

428 sh root 0.0 704 KB 2.32 GB

514 mysqld _mysql 0.1 7.02 GB 10.19 GB

1727 check_afp root 0.0 1.6 MB 2.39 GB

5949 httpd _www 0.0 2.1 MB 2.34 GB

10566 httpd _www 0.0 4.5 MB 2.34 GB

10567 httpd _www 0.0 2.1 MB 2.34 GB

10568 httpd _www 0.0 16.7 MB 2.35 GB

10575 httpd _www 0.0 4.5 MB 2.34 GB

10578 httpd _www 0.0 6.7 MB 2.34 GB

10579 httpd _www 0.0 15.8 MB 2.35 GB

57272 iStatServerDaemon root 3.3 57.7 MB 2.45 GB

57279 iStat Server admin 0.1 40.8 MB 3.99 GB

59159 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.7 MB 2.41 GB

59319 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.4 MB 2.41 GB

59366 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.3 MB 2.41 GB

59409 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.6 MB 2.41 GB

59411 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.4 MB 2.41 GB

59468 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.6 MB 2.41 GB

59477 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.6 MB 2.41 GB

59503 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.2 MB 2.41 GB

59520 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.8 MB 2.40 GB

59522 MacPracticeServer _macpracti 0.0 8.3 MB 2.41 GB

67828 AppleSpell.service admin 0.0 3.3 MB 2.37 GB

67841 Console admin 0.0 17.0 MB 2.95 GB

67848 Activity Monitor admin 4.5 27.4 MB 2.98 GB

67850 activitymonitord root 1.7 1.8 MB 2.33 GB

81786 UnmountAssistantAgent admin 0.0 4.9 MB 2.90 GB

81792 NetAuthAgent admin 0.5 6.1 MB 2.91 GB

81794 CCacheServer admin 0.0 1.8 MB 2.36 GB

Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 11, 2012 6:51 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Austin Kinsella1

Level 6

11,535 points

Nov 11, 2012 8:39 AM in response to mmoran

The sum of the VM required by all your processes is 209GB. You can't fit all that simultaneously into the 16GB of actual RAM.

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

53,003 points

Nov 11, 2012 9:25 AM in response to mmoran

It is possible that one of your applications is using mmap()'ed files and is doing all its I/O via pagein/pageout.

If that is the case, you would see lots of pageouts.

The reason most people ignore pagein stats is because launching programs and loading them into RAM is done via pagein. It is just an easy way to load code as needed, rather than read the entire program into RAM.

A database for example that does lots of random I/O may decide to memory map the database file and allow it to be paged in as needed, allowing the OS to flush modified pages back to the database file as RAM is needed for other things.

NOTE: I DO NOT know if any of the applications you are running actually use memory mapped files. But from the limited information you have provided, it is my best guess.

However, I will point out that your mysql daemon has a very high REAL memory usage, which is very close to the virtual memory size

514 mysqld _mysql 0.1 7.02 GB 10.19 GB

It is possible mysql is using memory mapped files.

It is also possible that with mysql using half your available RAM (at the time of this capture), that it is also just taking up RAM other Apps might like to use, and you really are paging to disk.

I would suggest you start an Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal session and run

sar -g 60 100

which will display the pageout values once a minute for 100 minutes (adjust the numbers to suit your tastes).

Now when the pageouts jump up, check your free space. Also see if this was a period of time when the mysql data base (or the Apache web server, or any other app running on the Mac) were very busy. You might be able to associate the high pageout activity with either a low Free memory event, or a high application activity event that might indicate the app is using a memory mapped file.

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