Memory almost 100% even after image complete

[Ryan Miller]

Any one else having this issue?
When my server boots up the memory usage is next to nothing. After the first image starts, memory shoots up to about 99% and stays that high even after the imaging has completed.
System:
Ubuntu 10.04
2 cores
4gb of RAM
Note: I assigned 8gb of RAM to it before and got the same results.
Disk, network and cpu performance all look normal.
Any ideas?

[Matt Harding]

I think you’ll probably find that most of that is cached. Linux has a habit of using loads of ram for caching and then giving it back in chunks as needed. Perhaps someone with more of a grasp could explain it to you a little better… but I’m guessing that your RAM is probably not going to cause you and issues.

If you want to test that out though do some benchmarking with your images etc before and after dumping the cached memory… Try this simple little script I use on some of my servers for ejecting it…

#! /bin/bash
clear
echo MEM before cache clear up:
echo
free && sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo
echo MEM after cache clear up:
echo
free

Write the above into a text file with vi/nano/whatever and chmod +x the file then run. Sorry if that’s patronising in any way, I just dont know what level of experience you have.