Memory Usage

The Memory Usage check polls the configured memory performance indicators every five seconds and if the average for either indicator over the monitored period of 5 or 15 minutes exceeds the entered threshold, an Alert is generated.

There can only be one Performance Monitoring Check for Memory Usage per device.

We cannot advise average or standardized settings because the uses of devices vary greatly.

For example, rendering high resolution graphic designs is expected to have higher memory usage than generating spreadsheets for financial accounting so higher thresholds are likely needed for customers who create graphic designs.

We recommend you determine the expected amount of memory usage for your customer. Ask your customers what they use their devices for and set initial thresholds. Then monitor their devices over time to refine the thresholds and modify the checks accordingly.

Memory performance Indicators

Indicator Alert Threshold Description
RAM Used Alert if average available MB < The total memory minus the available memory. Available memory is the sum of the following three internal memory lists:
  • Standby List: Cached memory pages not in a process’s active working set are placed in the Standby List. If the same process needs the page, and it is in the Standby List, it is returned immediately
  • Free List: Memory pages not used for some time by a process are cleared and placed on the Free list
  • Zero List: Memory pages that are freed and initialized to zero are placed on the Zero List
Unused pages of memory and pages of memory returned to the operating system when a process has either quit or its working set was reduced to comply with system resource requirements are placed on one of the above three lists. They will first go to the Standby List, then the Free list and eventually the Zero list.

If a process makes a memory allocation request, the memory manager first looks at the Zero List. If that list is empty, it looks at the Free List, and if that list is empty, it clears memory pages in the Standby List for use by the process.
Pages per second (hard page faults only) Alert if average pages per sec > Hard page faults occur if the system attempts to access a virtual memory page not currently in physical memory working set and the page must be retrieved from the disk, which results in a delay.

For the macOS Pages per second check, we sum the Pageins and Pageouts, the number of pages moved in and out of physical memory.

Swap Usage (Page File Usage) Alert if average page file usage > The memory pages used by a process not stored in physical RAM. Paging files can be resized to accommodate the additional memory requirements of the running processes. Problems may occur if the system paging file is inadequately sized for the paging activity of the system.
Non-pageable memory Alert if non-paged pool > The memory allocated to processes that either exited abnormally, have not returned the memory allocation to the Operating System for reuse, or memory in use by running processes. The Operating System cannot swap non-pageable memory from physical RAM to the pagefile as it is classed as in use.

For the macOS Non-pageable memory check, the device wired (resident) memory is queried.
Commit Charge

Only available for Windows devices.

 Alert if average committed bytes > The allocated (committed) virtual memory consisting of physical (RAM) and pagefile (cached on the hard drive) assigned to all running programs and applications including the Operating System.

For information about how to add, edit, or delete a Performance Monitoring Check, see one of the following: