Linux Memory Slot Information

  

The RAM, for Random Access Memory, is a critical component of a Linux system that needs to be monitored closely. In some cases, you might run out of memory, leaving your server with very slow response times or being completely unresponsive. As a consequence, knowing how to check your RAM on Linux is crucial because you might be able to take preventive actions instead of corrective ones. Instead of going with ‘typeid‘ you can also use keyword with ‘-t‘ argument to the dmidecode command.Following are the list of available keywords. Keyword Types - bios 0, 13 system 1, 12, 15, 23, 32 baseboard 2, 10 chassis 3 processor 4 memory 5, 6, 16, 17 cache 7 connector 8 slot 9. Linux Memory Slots Info certainly can! Internet casinos normally offer US players the chance to gamble in US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Great British Pounds Linux Memory Slots Info and other legal tender. Some also offer gaming in dozens of other currencies as well. In this way, you can deposit funds and collect winnings in your local.

Some time back I was using a command called meminfo in Solaris to find the memory information in Solaris. It is indeed a nice script written by schmidt http://www.4schmidts.com/memconf.html .

Check Linux memory usage with the free command. To check available free memory and swaps.

Later, I moved my role from supporting Solaris systems to Linux systems and I was struggling to get the same piece of info in Linux about the memory bank/slot and how memory is present in each memory bank. Today I got an audit work to validate the system data that someone has filled about Linux servers. So, this time I couldn’t escape and I had to find a way out. I always knew that there should be info in dmidecode command, but as usual my laziness was stopping me from looking in to the output.

So finally I had to push my lazy attitude and dive in to the Info which dmidecode was giving. I was really surprised to see that there is enough info that we can grab from the dmidecode output. So here is my analysis.

  • First check the actual memory Info from the either “top” or “free -m” command.
  • Check the “dmidecode” output for the DIMM slot and each RAM size

FREE COMMAND OUTPUT

Linux Memory Slot Information Check

So the below command shows that we have around 2GB of memory installed in the system.

[root@bravo]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2026 1585 440 0 222 551
-/+ buffers/cache: 811 1215
Swap: 4094 0 4094

Linux memory slot information software

TOP COMMAND OUTPUT

Let’s verify our understanding of memory available using the TOP command which also shows that we have approx 2GB memory approx.

[root@bravo]# top

top – 13:18:56 up 216 days, 4:12, 3 users, load average: 0.14, 0.11, 0.09
Tasks: 199 total, 1 running, 198 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.8% us, 1.4% sy, 0.0% ni, 97.4% id, 0.3% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 2074900k total, 1623648k used, 451252k free, 227816k buffers
Swap: 4192924k total, 296k used, 4192628k free, 565160k cached

DMIDECODE COMMAND

Run the DMIDECODE command and look for the data where the word “Physical Memory Array” starts and go through each line to get detailed information. In some new systems you can also use the command dmidecode –s memory and dmidecode –t 17 , where “s” means string and “t” means type. Let’s just use dmidecode here for now.

Summary of the memory data

——————————————————————————————-

Maximum memory that the ON BOARD memoryslots can accept is= 8GB

Type of memory = DDR

Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC

Size of each DIMM = 1024 MB (1GB)

DIMM Speed = 333 MHz (3.0 ns)

Number of DIMM slots = Total4 DIMM slots and only 2 DIMM slots are filled with 1GB memory each

Note: where ever the Memory module is not installed the “Size” would show as “Size: No Module Installed”

——————————————————————————————-

[root@bravo]# dmidecode more

So here is the summary of the Info that we are looking from the Important Information we have from the dmidecode data

Handle 0x1000
DMI type 16, 15 bytes.
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC
Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Number Of Devices: 4

Handle 0x1100
DMI type 17, 23 bytes.
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x1000
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 1024 MB
Form Factor: DIMM

Set: 1
Locator: DIMM 01
Bank Locator: Not Specified
Type: DDR
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 333 MHz (3.0 ns)
Handle 0x1101
DMI type 17, 23 bytes.
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x1000
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 1024 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: 1
Locator: DIMM 02
Bank Locator: Not Specified
Type: DDR
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 333 MHz (3.0 ns)

Handle 0x1102
DMI type 17, 23 bytes.
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x1000
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: No Module Installed
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: 2
Locator: DIMM 03
Bank Locator: Not Specified
Type: DDR
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 333 MHz (3.0 ns)

Handle 0x1103
DMI type 17, 23 bytes.
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x1000
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: No Module Installed
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: 2
Locator: DIMM 04
Bank Locator: Not Specified
Type: DDR
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 333 MHz (3.0 ns)

So here is my learning for the day. So I am signing of for the day looking forward to learn something new tomorrow. Infact there are couple of things that I have learnt today and I would try to either share it today or tomorrow in my new post.

Also, one thing that I started believing these days is that there is no job which is small or waste of time. We just have to look at the learning that we can grab from it. I am sure every job teaches us something might not be technical always but I am sure we would have some thing to learn from it directly or in directly.

Adios ! Amigos !

The desire to write grows with writing.Desiderius Erasmus

Most of the system administrators checks CPU & Memory utilization when they were facing some performance issue.

Linux Get Memory Slot Info

There is lot of utilities are available in Linux to check physical memory.These commands are help us to check the physical RAM present in system, also allow users to check memory utilization in varies aspect.

Most of us know only few commands and we are trying to include all the possible commands in this article.You may think, why I want to know all these commands instead of knowing some of the specific and routine commands.

Don’t think bad or don’t take in negative way because each one has different requirement and perception so, who’s looking for other purpose then this will very helpful for them.

What is RAM

Computer memory is a physical device which capable to store information temporarily or permanently. RAM stands for Random Access Memory is a volatile memory that stores information used by the operating system, software, and hardware.

Two types of memory is available.

  • Primary Memory
  • Secondary Memory

Primary memory is the main memory of the computer. CPU can directly read or write on this memory. It is fixed on the motherboard of the computer.

  • RAM: Random Access Memory is a temporary memory. This information will go away when the computer is turned off.
  • ROM: Read Only Memory is permanent memory, that holds the data even if the system is switched off.

Linux Memory Slot Information Sheet

Method-1 : Using free Command

free displays the total amount of free and used physical and swap memory in the system, as well as the buffers and caches used by the kernel. The information is gathered by parsing /proc/meminfo.

Suggested Read : free – A Standard Command to Check Memory Usage Statistics (Free & Used) in Linux

Method-2 : Using /proc/meminfo file

/proc/meminfo is a virtual text file that contains a large amount of valuable information about the systems RAM usage.

It reports the amount of free and used memory (both physical and swap) on the system.

Linux Memory Slot Information

Method-3 : Using top Command

​Top command is one of the basic command to monitor real-time system processes in Linux. It display system information and running processes information like uptime, average load, tasks running, number of users logged in, number of CPUs & cpu utilization, Memory & swap information. Run top command then hit E to bring the memory utilization in MB.

Linux memory usage

Suggested Read : TOP Command Examples to Monitor Server Performance

Method-4 : Using vmstat Command

vmstat is a standard nifty tool that report virtual memory statistics of Linux system. vmstat reports information about processes, memory, paging, block IO, traps, and cpu activity. It helps Linux administrator to identify system bottlenecks while troubleshooting the issues.

Suggested Read : vmstat – A Standard Nifty Tool to Report Virtual Memory Statistics

Method-5 : Using nmon Command

nmon is a another nifty tool to monitor various system resources such as CPU, memory, network, disks, file systems, NFS, top processes, Power micro-partition and resources (Linux version & processors) on Linux terminal.

Just press m key to see memory utilization stats (cached, active, inactive, buffered, free in MB & free percent)

Suggested Read : nmon – A Nifty Tool To Monitor System Resources On Linux

Method-6 : Using dmidecode Command

Dmidecode is a tool which reads a computer’s DMI (stands for Desktop Management Interface)
(some say SMBIOS – stands for System Management BIOS) table contents and display system hardware information in a human-readable format.

This table contains a description of the system’s hardware components, as well as other useful information such as serial number, Manufacturer information, Release Date, and BIOS revision, etc,.

Suggested Read :
Dmidecode – Easy Way To Get Linux System Hardware Information

Print only installed RAM modules.

Sum all the installed RAM modules.

Method-7 : Using hwinfo Command

hwinfo stands for hardware information tool is another great utility that used to probe for the hardware present in the system and display detailed information about varies hardware components in human readable format.

It reports information about CPU, RAM, keyboard, mouse, graphics card, sound, storage, network interface, disk, partition, bios, and bridge, etc,.

Suggested Read : hwinfo (Hardware Info) – A Nifty Tool To Detect System Hardware Information On Linux

Method-8 : Using lshw Command

lshw (stands for Hardware Lister) is a small nifty tool that generates detailed reports about various hardware components on the machine such as memory configuration, firmware version, mainboard configuration, CPU version and speed, cache configuration, usb, network card, graphics cards, multimedia, printers, bus speed, etc.

It’s generating hardware information by reading varies files under /proc directory and DMI table.

Suggested Read : LSHW (Hardware Lister) – A Nifty Tool To Get A Hardware Information On Linux

Method-9 : Using inxi Command

inxi is a nifty tool to check hardware information on Linux and offers wide range of option to get all the hardware information on Linux system that i never found in any other utility which are available in Linux. It was forked from the ancient and mindbendingly perverse yet ingenius infobash, by locsmif.

inxi is a script that quickly shows system hardware, CPU, drivers, Xorg, Desktop, Kernel, GCC version(s), Processes, RAM usage, and a wide variety of other useful information, also used for forum technical support & debugging tool.

Linux Free Memory

Suggested Read : inxi – A Great Tool to Check Hardware Information on Linux

Method-10 : Using screenfetch Command

screenFetch is a bash script. It will auto-detect your distribution and display an ASCII art version of that distribution’s logo and some valuable information to the right.

Suggested Read : ScreenFetch – Display Linux System Information On Terminal With Distribution ASCII Art Logo

Method-11 : Using neofetch Command

Neofetch is a cross-platform and easy-to-use command line (CLI) script that collects your Linux system information and display it on the terminal next to an image, either your distributions logo or any ascii art of your choice.

Suggested Read : Neofetch – Shows Linux System Information With ASCII Distribution Logo

Method-12 : Using dmesg Command

dmesg (stands for display message or driver message) is a command on most Unix-like operating systems that prints the message buffer of the kernel.

Method-13 : Using atop Command

Atop is an ASCII full-screen system performance monitoring tool for Linux that is capable of reporting the activity of all server processes (even if processes have finished during the interval).

It’s logging of system and process activity for long-term analysis (By default, the log files are preserved for 28 days), highlighting overloaded system resources by using colors, etc. It shows network activity per process/thread with combination of the optional kernel module netatop.

Suggested Read : Atop – Monitor real time system performance, resources, process & check resource utilization history

Method-14 : Using htop Command

Linux get memory slot info

htop is an interactive process viewer for Linux which was developed by Hisham using ncurses library. Htop have many of features and options compared to top command.

Suggested Read : Monitor system resources using Htop command

Method-15 : Using corefreq Utility

CoreFreq is a CPU monitoring software designed for Intel 64-bits Processors and supported architectures are Atom, Core2, Nehalem, SandyBridge and superior, AMD Family 0F.

CoreFreq provides a framework to retrieve CPU data with a high degree of precision.

Linux Memory Slot Information Software

Suggested Read : CoreFreq – A Powerful CPU monitoring Tool for Linux Systems

Method-16 : Using glances Command

Glances is a cross-platform curses-based system monitoring tool written in Python. We can say all in one place, like maximum of information in a minimum of space. It uses psutil library to get information from your system.

Glances capable to monitor CPU, Memory, Load, Process list, Network interface, Disk I/O, Raid, Sensors, Filesystem (and folders), Docker, Monitor, Alert, System info, Uptime, Quicklook (CPU, MEM, LOAD), etc,.

Suggested Read : Glances (All in one Place)– An Advanced Real Time System Performance Monitoring Tool for Linux

Method-17 : Using gnome-system-monitor

Linux Memory Slot Information Guide

System Monitor is a tool to manage running processes and monitor system resources. It shows you what programs are running and how much processor time, memory, and disk space are being used.