memory usage

[Jonathan Horne]

On Sunday 07 May 2006 12:09, Jonathan Horne wrote:
> i have a server that has 2GB ram, recently upgraded from 1GB ram.  it runs
> apache2.0 with php5, sendmail with spamass-milter, dovecot, mysql5.0,
> cacti, and a couple other small things (like snmp, my bx irc shell, etc).
>
> when ever i look at the memory usage (via phpsysinfo, or cacti graphs), its
> nearly always showing less than 100mb of ram available.  top shows several
> perls (probably spamassassin), 8 or so httpds (typical), but that would
> probably only account for (a liberal guess) 500-600 mb of ram.
>
> is there a good way to find out where this bottomless ram funnel leads to?
> or, should this behavior just be considered typical?
>
> thanks,
> jonathan

update...

i just upgraded to the new phpsysinfo rc2, and it shows more detailed 
information about what the memory usage is doing.  it shows that 1.57GB is 
being used by buffers.  what is the significance of 1.57GB of memory being 
used by 'buffers'?

thanks,
jonathan