Out of memory - but only 500M out of 4GB in use

[Christopher Fowler]

Its stuff in cache.  If a program needs it then it will get it.

This may be a benefit: 
http://sourcefrog.net/weblog/software/linux-kernel/free-mem.html

On Wed, 2006-05-24 at 11:51 +1000, Tony van Lingen wrote:
> 0
> 
> I thought that memory allocated as 'cache' was (at least in theory) 
> free? How do I prevent the kernel from allocating it? The program memory 
> seems to use only 500M..
> There's 2GB swap, virtually all of which is free.
> 
> Currently:
> Mem:   4147196k total,  3058100k used,  1089096k free,    15784k buffers
> Swap:  2096472k total,    43060k used,  2053412k free,  2521072k cached
> 
> 3GB memory is used, but 2.5GB of that is cache...
> 
> Cheers,
> Tony
> 
> David Hubbard wrote:
> 
> >What's the value of your /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory
> >
> >With only 50 MB of free memory though, that's cutting
> >it close.  How much swap do you have?
> >
> >David 
> >
> >  
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com 
> >>[mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Tony van Lingen
> >>Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 8:35 PM
> >>To: poweredge
> >>Subject: Out of memory - but only 500M out of 4GB in use
> >>
> >>G'day.
> >>
> >>I'm trying to run various OC4J (oracle java servers) as well 
> >>as a couple of Oracle App servers (OAS) on the same box. It 
> >>has 4GB RAM in it, 3.5 GB of which is allocated to cache when 
> >>3 OAS instances and 1 OC4J instance are running. There's 50M 
> >>unallocated memory. When I try to start another OC4J (java 
> >>-jar oc4j.jar) it goes and allocated the remaining 50M abd 
> >>then reports 'Out of Memory' and apparently hangs. 
> >>Anyone knows how to get around this? It also seems to confuse 
> >>the oom-kiler which goes and kills parts of the OAS (the 
> >>webcache daemon - not good) when the system has "only" 2GB 
> >>allocated to cache...
> >>
> >>The box is a PE2850, 4GB RAM, 2CPU, RHEL 4 kernel 2.6.9-34 ELsmp.
> >>
> >>Cheers,
> >>
> >>--
> >>Tony van Lingen
> >>Tech One Contractor
> >>Information Management
> >>Corporate Development Division
> >>Environmental Protection Agency
> >>
> >>Ph:	(07) 3234 1972
> >>Fax:	(07) 3227 6534
> >>Mobile:	0413 701 284
> >>E-mail:	tony.vanlingen at epa.qld.gov.au
> >>
> >>Visit us online at www.epa.qld.gov.au
> >>--
> >>
> >>
> >>
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