Swap memory of 3200 series firewall is 100% (fully utilized)
79521
Created On 04/04/19 16:06 PM - Last Modified 03/05/22 03:16 AM
Symptom
- Swap Memory of 3200 series firewall is full (100% utilized)
- No memory leak.
- System functionality and performance is not impacted, but still swap memory is full.
Truncated output of >show system resources
Tasks: 168 total, 9 running, 159 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 1.2%us, 0.4%sy, 0.1%ni, 98.3%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 16118532k total, 15598500k used, 520032k free, 370640k buffers
Swap: 7996k total, 7996k used, 0k free, 10457160k cached >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Note 0k Free Swap space
Environment
- PA-3200 Series Firewall
- PAN-OS 8.0.x
- PAN-OS 8.1.x
- PAN-OS 9.x
- PAN-OS 10.x
Cause
PA-3200 series firewalls only has 8 MB in swap memory.
Majority of the memory is cached by the Kernel
Resolution
- PA-3200 series firewall appliance has 16 GB of physical memory and high virtual memory usage is not an issue.
- These firewalls have only 8MB in swap area, thus 100% usage is normal and should not be a concern.
- The Kernel can decide when to put some process memory into swap area. For example, when the user process memory is inactive for too long it will be moved to the swap memory.
Note: This is by design and expected.
Additional Information
High MP Memory consumption on PA-5200 Series firewall