[SOLVED] [PVE 9.] Help Understanding how PVE Reports RAM Usage Inside VMs? (I am confused.)

[SInisterPisces]

Admittedly, I'm still confused by how Linux itself reports its own RAM usage, but I'm realizing that I need to actually understand this better.

I've set up a Debian 13 VM with 4 GiB of RAM, which is overkill for this workload. PVE reports RAM usage like this:


Meanwhile, inside the VM:

@flynn:~$ free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3.8Gi       375Mi       3.0Gi       1.0Mi       725Mi       3.4Gi
Swap:          1.7Gi          0B       1.7Gi

PVE's report appears to be used + buff/cache. Is that right? I don't really understand what buff/cache is, but I assume Linux takes advantage of having free RAM to cache ... something useful, and would empty that cache if it needed more available RAM.

 

[Onslow]

I assume Linux takes advantage of having free RAM to cache ... something useful, and would empty that cache if it needed more available RAM.

Yes
See e.g. https://www.linuxatemyram.com/
P.S.
And https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/f...ram-usage-of-the-vms-in-the-dashboard.165943/

 

[SInisterPisces]

Yes
See e.g. https://www.linuxatemyram.com/

lol. I'd seen that link before. I didn't click on it because I thought it was some sort of joke meme thing.

Thanks.

 

[Onslow]

Also: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/f...ram-usage-of-the-vms-in-the-dashboard.165943/

(I added this link to my previous post but you replied before my edit, so you might not notice the P.S.).