Using vmstat to infer memory usage - Exercise

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Objective: Analyze a vmstat output

Exercise scoring

This exercise is worth 10 points. You will interpret a vmstat output and send your interpretation and a recommendation for feedback.

Background

You suspect that your server is experiencing a memory problem. Your server is an 8-way SMP processor, running only Oracle with a dedicated listener. You have about 200 connected user processes and a sort_area_size of 20 megabytes. A listing from vmstat appears below.

diogenes:> vmstat 1

kthr     memory             page              faults        cpu     

----- ----------- ------------------------ ------------ -----------

 r  b   avm   fre  re  pi  po  fr   sr  cy  in   sy  cs us sy id wa 

 9  1 44737 17833   0   7   0   0    0   0 124  246  72 97  3  0  0

 2  1 44738 17828   0   0   0   0    0   0 133 5851 332 88 12  0  0

 9  1 44738 17828   0   4   0   0    0   0 120  179  58 98  2  0  0

 1  1 44738 17828   0   0   0   0    0   0 125  657  87 96  4  0  0

Instructions

Your task is to provide the following.

Your interpretation of the vmstat output
Recommendations for ways to reduce memory consumption

Hints

You may have memory in the SGA that could be returned to the OS.

Submitting your exercise

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