Memory Usage - IGEL

This test reports statistics related to the usage of physical memory of each of the IGEL Endpoints.

Target of the test : An IGEL Endpoint

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every user_on_IGEL Endpoint

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The nick name of the IGEL Endpoints component for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to. By default, this is NULL.

Inside View Using

To obtain the 'inside view' of performance of the IGEL Endpoints - i.e., to measure the internal performance of the IGEL Endpoints - this test uses a light-weight Endpoint Agent software deployed on each of the IGEL Endpoints. The Endpoint Agents collect performance metrics from the IGEL Endpoints and communicate the metrics to the eG remote agent using TCP protocol. Accordingly, by default, this parameter is set to eG VM Agent.

Report By User

Since this test runs for an 'IGEL Endpoints' component, this flag is set to No by default.

Report Powered OS

Since this test runs for an 'IGEL Endpoints' component, this flag is set to Yes by default.

Is Cloud VMs

Since this test runs for an 'IGEL Endpoints' component, this flag is set to Yes by default.

Group Processes with Arguments

By default, this flag is set to No. This indicates that the detailed diagnosis for the Used Memory measure will be reported for each instance of the process executing on the target IGEL Endpoint. If multiple instances of the same process are executing in your environment, then, setting this flag to Yes will group all the instances of the process and display the same in the detailed diagnosis. This way, administrators can be alerted to all the processes that are consuming excessive memory.

Memory Utilization In Percent

Specify the percentage of time beyond which the test should reveal the detailed diagnosis for the Memory utilized measure. By default, this parameter is set to 75. However, you can override this value as per your requirement.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. For instance, if you set to 1:1, it means that detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Total memory

Indicates the total physical memory of this IGEL Endpoint.

MB

 

Used memory

Indicates the used physical memory of this IGEL Endpoint.

MB

The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the name of each process, memory used by each process, percentage of memory used by each process, the name of the application and the images with args.

Free memory

Indicates the free physical memory of this IGEL Endpoint.

MB

This measure typically indicates the amount of memory available for use by applications running on the target IGEL Endpoint.

Memory utilized

Indicates the percent usage of physical memory by this IGEL Endpoint.

Percent

Ideally, the value of this measure should be low. While sporadic spikes in memory usage could be caused by one/more rogue processes on the IGEL Endpoint, a consistent increase in this value could be a cause for some serious concern, as it indicates a gradual, but steady erosion of valuable memory resources. If this unhealthy trend is not repaired soon, it could severely hamper the performance of the IGEL Endpoint, causing anything from a slowdown to a complete system meltdown.

You can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to figure out which processes on the IGEL Endpoint are consuming memory excessively.

Available physical memory

Indicates the amount of physical memory, immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use.

MB

Not all of the Available physical memory is Free physical memory. Typically, Available physical memory is made up of the Standby List, Free List, and Zeroed List.

When Windows wants to trim a process' working set, the trimmed pages are moved (usually) to the Standby List. From here, they can be brought back to life in the working set with only a soft page fault (much faster than a hard fault, which would have to talk to the disk). If a page stays in the standby List for a long time, it gets freed and moved to the Free List.

In the background, there is a low priority thread (actually, the only thread with priority 0) which takes pages from the Free List and zeros them out. Because of this, there is usually very little in the Free List.

All new allocations always come from the Zeroed List, which is memory pages that have been overwritten with zeros. This is a standard part of the OS' cross-process security, to prevent any process ever seeing data from another. If the Zeroed List is empty, Free List memory is zeroed and used or, if that is empty too, Standby List memory is freed, zeroed, and used. It is because all three can be used with so little effort that they are all counted as "available".

A high value is typically desired for this measure.

Modified memory

Indicates the amount of memory that is allocated to the modified page list.

MB

This memory contains cached data and code that is not actively in use by processes, the system and the system cache. This memory needs to be written out before it will be available for allocation to a process or for system use.

Cache pages on the modified list have been altered in memory. No process has specifically asked for this data to be in memory, it is merely there as a consequence of caching. Therefore it can be written to disk at any time (not to the page file, but to its original file location) and reused. However, since this involves I/O, it is not considered to be Available physical memory.

Standby memory

Indicates the amount of memory assigned to the standby list.  

MB

This memory contains cached data and code that is not actively in use by processes, the system and the system cache. It is immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use. If the system runs out of available free and zero memory, memory on lower priority standby cache page lists will be repurposed before memory on higher priority standby cache page lists.

Typically, Standby memory is the aggregate of Standby Cache Core Bytes, Standby Cache Normal Priority Bytes, and Standby Cache Reserve Bytes. Standby Cache Core Bytes is the amount of physical memory, that is assigned to the core standby cache page lists. Standby Cache Normal Priority Bytes is the amount of physical memory, that is assigned to the normal priority standby cache page lists. Standby Cache Reserve Bytes is the amount of physical memory, that is assigned to the reserve standby cache page lists.

Cached memory

This measure is an aggregate of Standby memory and Modified memory.

MB

 

Maximum memory allocated

Indicates the maximum amount of memory that this IGEL endpoint is allowed to use.

MB

This measure will be available only for those IGEL Endpoints that are provisioned from a Microsoft Hyper-V Hypervisor.

Memory usage by maximum allocated memory

Indicates the percentage of memory that is utilized from the maximum amount of memory that this IGEL Endpoint is allowed to use.

Percent

This measure will be available only for those IGEL Endpoints that are provisioned from a Microsoft Hyper-V Hypervisor.