[CentOS] real used RAM!

Mon May 30 14:16:59 UTC 2005
Johnny Hughes <mailing-lists at hughesjr.com>

On Mon, 2005-05-30 at 10:10 -0500, israel.garcia at cimex.com.cu wrote:
> List, I've installed my CentOS Server running progress 9.1D database
> system, with only 15 users working every day, this server has 2GB RAM,
> so, my question is: 
> Why the 2GB of RAM is always used? Even with only one user connected...
> How can I messuare the real RAM MEM used by my system split in proccess?
> Is there another tools which I use to compare the results from top. Or
> vmstat?
> 

Linux uses all the memory (on purpose).  It uses it as recoverable cache
and buffers ... which it can release the oldest parts of if necessary to
give it to real processes.  

In vmstat ... take:

Actual_RAM - buffers - cached = Real RAM in use

in CentOS-4's top ... same thing:

Actual - Buffers - cached = Real Ram in Use
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