[clug] Help: Memory Evaporating!

[Rob Weir]

On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 12:41:02PM +1100, Alex Satrapa said
> I have a problem with a web/database server here, and I'm not sure how 
> to figure out what the problem is, much less solve it.
> 
> On my server, I have 1GB of RAM, and something is chewing it up at the 
> rate of approximately 3kB/s. That something doesn't show up in process 
> listings (ps auxwww sheds no light on the matter). My machine - for all 
> intents and purposes - is having its memory swallowed up by the same 
> Chinese dragon responsible for solar eclipses.

Ok, the obvious one which I'm sure you've already checked: you know the
difference between the 2nd and third lines of the 'free' output, right?

> I've restarted the big memory-using services on the machine, but the 
> used memory didn't come back. Could there be processes still in memory 
> that aren't showing up in top, ps or /proc/?

Wild guess, but maybe shared memory doesn't show up?  Does 'ipcs' print
any interestingly large segments?

-rob

-- 
Words of the day:                        North Korea investigation Rubin Arnett