Forum Discussion

Hame_35062's avatar
Hame_35062
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Mar 15, 2011

IS it ok to have F5 memory usage high

Hi,

In my F5 load balancer ( BIG-IP LTM 1600) memory usage high. I have attached a snap shot also. Pls advice DO i need an upgrade or is this normal. My CPU and RAM utilisation seems ok.

 

 

 

System Memory

 

Host Total 3.4G

 

Host Used 3.3G

 

 

 

TMM Total 2.7G

 

TMM Used 43.4M

 

 

 

Pls advice on this.

 

 

 

Thanks

 

config
design
  • Chris_Miller's avatar
    Chris_Miller
    Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
    Mar 15, 2011
    I've had this happen on a couple units as well and was told it was fine. I'd recommend creating a support case though as I forgot why F5 said it wasn't an issue. I recall them saying my system would automatically clear out memory as it needed it though. What version are you on?
  • nathe's avatar
    nathe
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Mar 15, 2011
    Hame

     

     

    I think this may help http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/10000/000/sol10099.html

     

     

    "...the Host used memory is reported higher than in BIG-IP versions prior to 9.4.7 and 10.0.0. Subtracting the TMM total memory from the Host memory allows you to calculate the actual amount of memory used by the Host system"

     

     

    N
  • Hame_35062's avatar
    Hame_35062
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Mar 16, 2011
    Thanks Nathan and Miller.

     

     

    My LB is BIG-IP LTM 1600, version 9.4.8. Build 355.0 final.

     

     

    As you say this is noramal; I'll dig on it.

     

    CAn anyone tell me what is the difference between Host and TMM memory.

     

    Thanks

     

     

  • Austin_Geraci's avatar
    Austin_Geraci
    Icon for MVP rankMVP
    Mar 16, 2011
    CAn anyone tell me what is the difference between Host and TMM memory.

     

     

    Host memory is memory being used by the Linux Host, and TMM memory is memory being used by the Traffic Management Kernel. See Simple! ;)

     

     

    To really understand this you need to understand how F5 has built their product, and elegantly so I might add..

     

     

    F5 is the product leader in the ADC/Load Balancing arena for a reason.. They didn't throw their Traffic Management logic on top of an operating system like some other competitors which will remain nameless ;).... They build their own operating system for Traffic Management and put it beside the managment OS.. enter TMOS , Traffic Management Operating System

     

     

    TMOS is totally autonomous from the Linux kernel, Linux does not participate in the Traffic Management flow at all.. TMOS has it's own dedicated CPU, memory and bus.

     

     

    You see, an operating system like Linux is a great general purpose OS for scheduling tasks, scripting, etc.. It schedules CPU time, therefore, It's not really suited for high speed Traffic Management operations.. TMOS is a REAL TIME OS, meaning it does away with the overhead of the CPU scheduler, it performs the necessary operations as they come, which equates to a very efficient OS for traffic management...

     

     

    For more general purpose info on TMOS see the White Paper:

     

     

    http://www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/tmos-wp.pdf

     

     

    For a whole boat load of reading fun ;), see F5's complete White Paper list here:

     

     

    http://www.f5.com/solutions/resources/white-papers.html