Memory Leaks

[rebus]

Apologies... still somewhat of a *NIX newbie here.

I've noticed that the longer mailcleaner runs, the more memory it consumes. Last time it hit 100%, mail started jamming in the spools. Restarting services did not fix the problem-- server had to be rebooted.

Server has 2 GB memory, and we're averaging anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 messages per day (very low volume, because this is still an experimental machine on our network).

Any clues or advice would be appreciated.

[olivier]

this is strange... None of the software used in MailCleaner is known to have memory leak.
But this is a fact that they need a lot of memory to work fine. However 2GB is quite enough and you should not end up swapping.

One thing you should be aware with Linux, is that it tends to use all the memory it has before starting to really optimize the usage. So you will quickly see the system using the whole 2 GB. But this doesn't mean it is not enough. The important thing is to not see it swapping.

But in your case, there might be something else. If this happens again, try to run "top -d1" on the system and then hit the m key. It will tell you which processes causes the problem.

[jordant]

I've noticed the stats on the webpage only show used memory, not memory that is free in the buffer. like so:

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mailcleaner:~# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2024        570       1453          0         43         83
-/+ buffers/cache:        442       1581
Swap:         2000          0       2000


[rebus]

Graph seems to coincide with what free -m shows.... down to just 232 MB free. Is memory in buffers and cached also "free" in some respect, or is it actually in use?

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mailcleaner:~# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2024       1792        232          0        251        454
-/+ buffers/cache:       1086        938
Swap:         2000          0       2000

[olivier]

actually, yes. As I said, Linux tends to use all it have first, using as much caches and buffers as possible.
So don't worry, your memory is not saturated. It's all fine here.

[rebus]

Great, that makes me feel better. Thanks.

Followup question-- when should I get worried? When SWAP starts to grow too large?

[olivier]

when swap start appearing. It doesn't have to be big to hit performence.
So beware the red line

[rebus]

Understood. Thanks.