High RAM consumption

[netermin]

High RAM consumption

Hi friends I have a query I have a pfsense with the following characteristics:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz.
4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s) x 2 hardware threads
8Gb of Ram

The detail is that it has a high RAM consumption has no additional services running only the basics of pfsense.

Does anyone have the same problem?
Any solution?

[johnpoz]

@netermin said in High RAM consumption:

The detail is that it has a high RAM consumption has no additional services running only the basics of pfsense.

And what do you consider high? Your saying all 8GB of ram is used and its swapping?

basics of pfsense.

So no packages at all?

I have a few packages.. And I am currently running at
26% of 8122 MiB

Here is last day per monitoring

If you go back in your graphs - did it drastically change, has it be slowly creeping up over days, weeks?

[netermin]

@johnpoz Hello friend I attach some images

[johnpoz]

can you sort your top output by RES, so we can see what is using the most, etc..

Also - see my edit using the monitor graph you can look to see if its been creeping up, jumped up, etc. etc..

[netermin]

@johnpoz This is the most orderly way that the top friend allows me to do it.

[netermin]

@johnpoz the strange thing is that I restart it and it stays at 15% for a couple of days, but suddenly the memory increases to 80% and if you start to buy the processes on the top, they do not match with so many resources.

[johnpoz]

in top press o for sort, then res and you will get it sort it in order of used mem

example - here is mine

you can see that pcscd is using most at 696M, and then radiusd at 107, then they go down in order.. You can see from yours that they are not in any order.

yeah look at your graph.. you should be able to go way back and see, depending how long your pfsense has been installed, etc..

For example here is mine going back until 2017.. Even though I have done clean installed, when restored it put data back, etc. At some point I have cleared all this, etc. clearly back in 2017 sometime ;) And recently have done clean installs when going to + and changing to zfs vs ufs. But you should be able to using that graph and different time frames see if slow creep or drastic jump, etc. and take a screenshot of what is using most memory via sort, and then look at it again when you notice very high, etc..

[netermin]

@johnpoz Now it looks better friend

[johnpoz]

See my edit about the monitor graph.. I don't see anything really jumping out using a lot, etc.

did you just reboot?

mine has been up for 20+ days..

[netermin]

@johnpoz No, I have restarted , if I do it lowers the RAM, then after a few days it increases again, I really don't know what can be happening.

[johnpoz]

Well now we have a screenshot of your top user processes.. And I would take a look at your monitor graph.. And then in a few days if up again like it is.. Look at your top sorted for res and see what jumps out to using more than it is right now, etc..

I have been running pfsense for years and years - and have never notice any sort this issue. Normally my pfsense runs 24/7/365 and only time it reboots is I upgrade it to new version, or significant power outage that ups can't last through. Which rarely ever happens.. The latest few updates have rebooted my pfsense more than it has in long time, 21.02, 21.02.1 and then 21.05.. I dont' see having to restart it again until 21.09 comes out - or they release something like 21.05.x

[netermin]

@johnpoz Thanks for your answers friends, I will monitor it.

[johnpoz]

Let us know how it looks in a few days..

[netermin]

@johnpoz Surely yes

[johnpoz]

What version of pfsense are you running exactly? Also is there some specific reason you have Kernel PTI enabled? There really should be no case where that would really come into play with firewall.. While I would doubt it would cause what your seeing, I would next time your planning on rebooting that you disable it.. Unless you feel better with it enabled - but there will be some sort of performance impact with that enabled.. What that % is have no idea..

Personally I have mine disabled, as I don't see any point to it on my firewall box.

edit: Also a bit curious what is using up your disk space... You say you have no packages installed?

Your using 2% of 50G and and 10% of your var - Im at 3% of half your disk space, and 0% var..

[netermin]

@johnpoz I will disable it when I reboot, what was taking up space was the Snort log, which was installed but is no longer installed.

[johnpoz]

@netermin said in High RAM consumption:

Snort log, which was installed but is no longer installed.

Had you rebooted since uninstalling that? Maybe that was what was sucking up your ram? Wild ass guess on my part there ;)

[netermin]

@johnpoz I had not restarted it since I removed snort, I have other pfsense in other clients, it has lightsquid, bandwidthd, ntopng, netdata and the memory does not go above 18%, it is true that this one has 2.5.0-RELEASE (amd64 because I am using wireguard).

[johnpoz]

Wireguard was removed ;)

I have no experience with wireguard when it comes to memory usage.. And there were some issues with the wireguard - which is why it was removed.. I do believe there is some package to get it working on current 2.5.1 release? And sure at some point it will back as part of base install.

[netermin]

@johnpoz Yes I know, I tell you what I have installed and the version I'm using and pfsense does not consume memory, compared to the other that has nothing installed and the memory does not go below 78%.