Memory Utilization In WHM Service Status vs. Top Output

[WooshData]

Hello and thanks for your time.

What Linux shows vs. what WHM shows as memory utilization is different. Could someone please let me know if this is normal?

I am not worried about load.
load average: 0.09, 0.19, 0.12


------ Memory Usage Comparison --------------

Top Output
Mem: 12220496k total, 10715924k used, 1504572k free, 1492524k buffers


System Info from WHM Service Status Page

Memory Used 11.35% (1,386,824 of 12,220,496)
Swap Used 0% (0 of 2,097,144)

 

[kdean]

Top used includes buffers and cache while the Service Status does not.

Click on Server information in WHM and scroll down to Current Memory Usage where should a "Mem:" line similar to top's numbers and then a "-/+ buffers/cache:" line showing the numbers without the buffers and cache included.

 

[JaredR.]

As kdean mentioned, you need to take into account buffers and cache. It is normal (and desirable) for Linux to allocate unused RAM to buffers and cache. Linux will automatically release this RAM to applications as needed.

I explained this in detail here:

http://forums.cpanel.net/f34/memory-usage-apparently-higher-than-expected-308861.html