Understanding Virtual Memory in HPUX

[Anoop P_2]

Hi Unix gurus,

I need your help to understand this thing better. According to my understanding, Virtual Memory = RAM + SWAP.

1. What is Active Virtual Memory"? ( I got that term from a measureware report file ) If this just means "Active VM in use", then why do I see an actve vm usage of less than 30%, when my swap is @ 100%?

How do I find out the free virtual memory in my HPUX system for the last 10 days? I have measureware running, and I know how to export data from the logs, so it would be helpful if some one could help me which parameter in the report file I should be looking for.

Thanks and Regards,
Anoop

[Muthukumar_5]

Active Virual Memory is the memory resource currently being used by process.

You can view all memory related statistics with sam,

sam -> performance monitor -> system properties -> memory

hth.

[Arunvijai_4]

Here is a good doc to understand basics,

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/admin-primer/s1-memory-concepts.html

-Arun

[Anoop P_2]

Muthukumar, SAM can show me only the CURRENT memory statistics. As clearly mentioned above, I'm looking for history information( for last 10 days), which will be collected by Measureware.

Arunvijai, you have given a linux link, is it applicable for HPUX? Ny ways I will go through and comment.

Thanks!

[AwadheshPandey]

check these links http://h21007.www2.hp.com/dspp/files/unprotected/devresource/Docs/TechPapers/UXPerfCookBook.pdf
http://docs.hp.com/en/5965-4641/5965-4641.pdf
http://docs.hp.com/en/1216/pstat_whitepaper.pdf

#man vmstat
#man pstat

Awadhesh

[Muthukumar_5]

You cannot get with sam. It will give CURRENT thing. I have given that to understand what is Active Virtual Memory.

You can get details with measureware only. I don't know about that. If you have vmstat auditing with files then you can also use it.

Wait for experts on measureware.

[Arunvijai_4]

Anoop, memory concepts are generic regardless on Linux or HP-UX. How kernel handles VM may differ.

-Arun

[Ted Buis]

There is always the "hp-ux 11i internals" book by Chris Cooper and Chris Moore. GlancePlus Pak has Measureware and give you tools to collect historical data. You could set up to send the output of vmstat to a file periodically, but it is not close to being as good as GlancePlus Pak.

[Anoop P_2]

Thanks for all the responses thus far.

I already have measureware running in the system. It'd be great if some one could tell me which parameters should I select in the template file, to get the free virtual memory, from the measureware logs.

Thanks!

[Arunvijai_4]

Anoop, here is a link to measureware related tips, http://www.sage.org/mailarchive/sage-members-archive/2000/msg00274.html

-Arun

[Arunvijai_4]

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=970959

-Arun