Applications using hard disk too often

Frank J. Laszlo laszlof at vonostingroup.com
Mon Mar 6 01:43:44 UTC 2006


Michael Tuchman wrote:
> I am running freeBSD 5.4 stable on a P133 box with 128 Mb ram.  
> Although I don't think I'm overloading the system, it seems that my 
> system is using virtual memory too often.   Admittedly, this is a 
> subjective question where 'too often' means only 'more often than I 
> remember with other *nix-like operating environments on even weaker 
> machines'.
>
> Can anybody offer advice on memory management, appropriate places to 
> read in the documentation, or other useful links?
>
> I realize that the answer is 'it depends', so what I am asking is really
> * How can I find out if I change this annoying behavior for the better?
> * Would upgrading to 6.0 help?
>
> This is an experimental box only.  There is no critical data on it, so 
> data loss is not an issue when considering options.

The 5.x series was a "transition" release, to ease the pain between 4.x 
and 6.x. I would recommend going up to 6.0 (or 6.1, But I have not yet 
tested it) Doing a fresh install would probably be in your best 
interest. Also running a custom kernel will ease some of the overhead, 
if you aren't already doing that. Remove anything from the kernel you do 
not use, etc.. There are numerous documents for doing this. The freebsd 
handbook is a excellent resource for both newbies and seasoned system 
admins. (http://www.freebsd.org/handbook) The output of `ps uxaww` will 
give us more of an idea of what you can get rid of as far as running 
daemons. Hope this helps.

-Frank


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