Dell Enterprise SONiC: Monitoring System Memory Usage

Summary: This article explores memory monitoring options in Enterprise SONiC distribution by Dell (e-SONiC), using Linux Shell, Management Framework CLI, and SNMP.

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Instructions

Linux shell:
A subset of available Linux tools to obtain system memory statistics are listed below.

top
free

 

:~$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          15448        2860       10606          71        1980       12183
Swap:             0           0           0

 

:~$ top
top - 15:24:07 up 4 days,  2:55,  4 users,  load average: 2.02, 1.90, 2.01
Tasks: 395 total,   1 running, 394 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 14.9 us,  8.1 sy,  0.0 ni, 77.0 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
MiB Mem :  15448.1 total,  10604.1 free,   2863.1 used,   1980.8 buff/cache
MiB Swap:      0.0 total,      0.0 free,      0.0 used.  12180.7 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                                                                                        
 6353 root      20   0 2841420 771212 241980 S  35.3   4.9 729:01.99 syncd                                                                                                                          
15979 admin     20   0   12312   4112   3220 R  11.8   0.0   0:00.03 top                                                                                                                            
13547 root      20   0  506660  55748  13892 S   5.9   0.4 247:17.69 python3                                                                                                                        
    1 root      20   0  172108  11976   8448 S   0.0   0.1   1:11.49 systemd                                                                                                                        
    2 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   0.0   0.0   0:00.18 kthreadd
 
Note: "free" vs "avail Mem" - It is recommended to monitor "avail Mem" or available memory as it considers factors like buffers and cache. It is a more accurate figure of the memory that is available for allocation.
"free" shows the amount of unused memory and might not always reflect the true availability of memory resources.
 
Management Framework CLI:
Use the Memory Histogram feature. The memory histogram displays 30 days of memory usage history by default. This makes it useful when troubleshooting memory-related issues. The feature provides a detailed view of memory usage across processes, containers, and system.
For more information about using the Memory Histogram feature, see the user guide.
  
# show histogram memory system

Start Time   : 2024-11-17 15:25:25
End Time     : 2024-12-17 15:25:25
Current Time : 2024-12-17 17:25:25
----------------------------------
    Days    Days    Days    Days    Days    Days    Days    Days    Days    Days    Days Current    High/Low    System List         
 [17-20] [20-23] [23-26] [26-29] [29-02] [02-05] [05-08] [08-11] [11-14] [14-17] [17-17]
  Nov/17  Nov/20  Nov/23  Nov/26  Nov/29  Dec/2   Dec/5   Dec/8   Dec/11  Dec/14  Dec/17
 ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------------- ----------------------------------
       -       -       -       -       -  15.09G  15.09G  15.09G  15.09G  15.09G  15.09G  15.09G   15.09G/15.09G  total
       -       -       -       -       -   2.64G   2.70G   2.67G   2.75G   2.57G   2.68G  2.85G     2.75G/2.57G   used
       -       -       -       -       -  10.49G  10.53G  10.49G  10.46G  10.87G  10.64G  10.30G   10.87G/10.46G  free
       -       -       -       -       - 129.74M 161.27M 178.04M 206.11M 150.27M 197.43M  205.21M 206.11M/129.74M buffers
       -       -       -       -       -   1.83G   1.69G   1.76G   1.68G   1.50G   1.58G  1.73G     1.83G/1.50G   cached
       -       -       -       -       -  12.07G  12.00G  12.03G  11.94G  12.13G  12.01G  11.84G   12.13G/11.94G  available

 
SNMP:

total        free buffers cached available
  .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.5.0  .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.11.0  .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.14.0 .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.15.0 .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.6.0

 
 

Article Properties
Article Number: 000259779
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 14 May 2025
Version:  11
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