Re: Free memory in Solaris

SUN has a unbundled tool called MEMTool that will show you exactly how much free memory you have on system. It is accompained with a excellent white paper on SUN memeory use. The tool works well for me. There is an article in the online SUN magizine from 1998 that also refres ot this tool.

Bass Chorng wrote:

> I am trying to find out how much physical memory is left
> after I size my SGA in Solaris. This should be a very
> basic and simple question. But it almost turns into a
> nightmare.
>
> I know the answer is NOT vmstat - if thats what you are
> thinking. It is NOT that simple with Solaris. It IS that
> simple with HP-UX, that vmstat shows free lists of memory.
> You can multiple your free lists by 4K and get the free
> memory in bytes.
>
> I have checked various webs, even with Sun support. There
> simply has no straight answers. Basically you need 3rd party
> tools. ( I have no idea what vmstat tells you then, to be honest ).
> I know man page with vmstat is either wrong or misleading.
> I says the column free tells you free mem in bytes, then
> a book I read says it tells you free mem in pages - but
> neither one matches reality. They are both way off.
>
> Then I read a white paper on Sun Support, it says, it is not
> easy....etc, and it never gives you a clear answer.
> I can hardly believe this.
>
> So, there must be trillions of DBAs out there sizing memories
> in Solaris everyday. How do you guys detemine how much free
> ( physical ) memory is left on a system? Don't you size
> stuff like sort_area_size AFTER knowing how much you have free ?
>
> I hope I am completely wrong, because this question seems to
> be too simple and easy to be answerless. So I am seeking help
> from the largest pool of Oracle expertises out there - please
> share your experience if you know how. I would certainly
> appreciate your help.
>
> -Bass Chorng
> DBA
> Lucent Technologies.
Received on Mon Jun 21 1999 - 21:51:07 CDT