Ron Smith wrote on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:02:02 -0400: > Processes: 61 total, 3 running, 58 sleeping... 342 > threads 20:19:27 > Load Avg: 0.45, 0.99, 1.21 CPU usage: 2.80% user, 3.74% sys, > 93.46% idle > SharedLibs: num = 2, resident = 34M code, 0 data, 3104K > linkedit. > MemRegions: num = 8452, resident = 253M + 14M private, 81M shared. > PhysMem: 199M wired, 489M active, 3365M inactive, 4054M used, 42M > free.
Finally: figures :-) These figures do not indicate any problems. That "inactive memory" is - according to the explanation link you gave - what we call "buffers" in Linux. However, it's not the same "buffers" that free shows. Growing buffers tells there is enough RAM available to let it grow. There's no indication that there is a memory problem. Few "free memory" doesn't mean anything on Unix-like systems. That's what they are programmed to do, keep as much as possible in the buffers. Only when your used swap (VM) increases to more than 10% of the available swap there *might* be a problem. Please run "free" (I hope that is available on Mac, too), that will give much better figures about RAM usage than top. The figures from Activity Viewer you quoted are *very* suspicious, I wouldn't trust them at all. It's interesting that they all fluctuate around 600 MB. Very suspicious. As Joanne already pointed out that mdworker process takes a lot of memory. That was probably the reason why you had to up the RAM in this machine. According to the given links it's a realtime content indexer. Hell! That means it indexes every mail and every file that gets created/changed on your machine! The more mail you get the more mdworker will do! If we are not very mistaken *that* is the source of your problem. What's relevant for your problem is not the memory, it's the load! I expect that load to grow heavily when you get mail because mdworker grabs a good portion of your cpu indexing it. You can see the load in top in the first few lines. There are two main figures. % idle shows how much your system is idle, if it decreases your CPU is getting used. If it stays constantly low that means that your CPU is in heavy usage. Look at it while the system has problems! The load average shows how much the system "has to work". It's calculated from I don't know what. It's a relative figure and needs interpretation. Usually, if it goes over 2 that means that the system is loaded, but still working at a reasonable level. Normally, it shouldn't stay at this level for hours, though, and it should not go much higher, unless for short peaks. You can "calibrate" these figures by yourself by looking at the load at various times and correlating that to the current tasks and how the machine behaves. F.i. if you tar cz a 1GB directory the load will go up very soon, maybe to 2, 3, 4, 5 and other task may becomne a bit sluggish, depending on your horse power. The first figure is the current load, the other two are 5 and 15 (or ten?) minutes ago. The figures from this "light" system load are already too high for my taste, I suspect that this "base load" comes from the fact that this machine is not only a server but also runs GUI (X) and is used as workstation, too, at least temporarily (?). If you want to run this system as a server you have to shut down as much stuff as you can that is irrelevant for that. And the no. 1 candidate is that mdworker process. I think if you want to use a Mac as a server you hit the limit where it suffices to use and know all the nice click-a-dee-click stuff that Mac and Windows have in common. You need to read up on the BSD-ish nature of Mac OS and how it works under the hood and how to use the unixish tools it offers. Kai -- Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com
