monitoringramzabbix

Zabbix: Difference between "memory usage" and "memory utilization"


I recently started using Zabbix for monitoring, and there is a question I can't figure out on my own. :) Is "memory usage" kind of inverse function of the "memory utilization"? I have high percentage of the "utilization" and low count on the "usage".

Thanks in advance.


Solution

  • Memory usage or utilization etc. are probably item names. You should look into the Template your are using and locate the corresponding key to understand the value.

    For instance, in my Zabbix Server 4.4 the Template Module Linux memory by Zabbix agent template has a Memory utilization item with this key: vm.memory.size[pavailable]

    According to the documentation:

    pavailable - 'available' memory as percentage of 'total' (calculated as available/total*100)

    Depending on the parameter key, you can extract various memory informations:

    Parameters The following parameters are available for this item:

    active - memory currently in use or very recently used, and so it is in RAM

    anon - memory not associated with a file (cannot be re-read from it)

    available - available memory, calculated differently depending on the platform (see the table below)

    buffers - cache for things like file system metadata

    cached - cache for various things

    [cut]

    See which one are you using and maybe try to implement additional items with these parameters to have a first hand experience.