2944508 - Large memory consumption from buffers and cache from 'free -h' command

Run OS command 'free -h' or 'free -g' and observe 'buff/cache' gradually increasing to the point where it consumes 85% or higher of total available server RAM/memory.

free -g
Memory information (in GB):
                    total        used       free       shared      buff/cache       available
Mem:           62            5           1           19            55                     36
Swap:          59            6           53

buff/cache is memory used by the Linux kernel buffers and page cache.

Force clear buff/cache using the 'echo' command will reduce the buff/cache usage immediately however it will gradually increase again to very high memory consumption over time.  

The SAP environment is running without issue and performing well.  Checking the Linux 'messages' log there is no sign of the oom-killer at work.

• SAP on Linux operating systems in general, SLES, RHEL, OLE

buff/cache, free, drop_caches, memory full , KBA , BC-OP-LNX , Linux , How To