How to determine which program is using most memory on my unix server

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looks like you need to configure some swap space

ASKER

Thank for your reply Objects.
But as in the attachment, the top command shows does not show the memory usage to be more than 20%. Then why is it showing as all the memory being used? What I am trying to say is that if there's some other problem then even after configuring swap space it'll occupy that space too.

thats not all the processes. I suspect the os itself would be using the bulk of the memory

ASKER

I agree. But my system has 2GB RAM. 20% of that would be about 400 MB. Would the OS be using 1600 MB? It is running mySQL, TOMCAT, Crontab and has Java installed. Nothing major. Earlier I had 1 GB and since when I ran my program it started showing as all the memory as being used up, I upgraded it to 2GB. Now it is showing as that also being used up completely. If I was not to run my Java program a lot of memory would be free. So I am not sure if so much memory is being occupied by the OS.

> What I am trying to say is that if there's some other problem then even after configuring swap space it'll occupy that space too.

why do you say that?
without any swap the os is going to have to hold *everything* in physical memory.

ASKER

I just tried to create a swap but I can not since it's a virtual server I've taken and creating a swap is not allowed in this case. Also, all the 2 GB I'm using is virtual since it's a virtual server.

Please suggest what should I do now.

Thanks.

if its a virtual server then you should check if all those memory figures are actually for the vm, and not for the host

ASKER

I am sorry I didn't get you. When I do a vmstat, get the same amount in used as in top.

SOLUTION

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If you're running in a virtual server, you need to determine from the hosting how they've got it configured

ASKER

Here's the result of the command:

              total used free shared buffers cached
Mem:             2048 1481 566 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 1481 566
Swap:               0 0 0

Looks fine

ASKER

I think the memory figures are for the VM only. When I had 1 GB it was showing 1 GB there and then I upgraded my server to 2 GB and now it is showing 2 GB. So I don't think the figures are of the host. I think it is of the VM only.

Yes, that's entirely expected