31 Aug Memory
Physical Memory Subsystem
You must have successfully completed the Week 1 assignment before moving on to any assignment from this point forward. If you have not installed your Linux virtual machine and successfully located the terminal please do so at this time.
For this assignment you will take a tour of the Physical Memory Subsystem on your Linux Virtual Machine.
Your Task
Locate and utilize performance analysis tools to determine characteristics of Physical Memory and how it is utilized and managed by your version of Linux.
Start your Linux Partition and open the Terminal. Do not open any other applications at this time. Determine values for each of the following. Provide screenshots of command output.
- Total Physical Memory
- Used Memory
- Free memory
- Amount of memory used by buffers in the kernel
- Size of the page cache (Memory used for holding physical memory page tables)
- Amount of memory containing dirty pages
- Amount of memory being used for page tables
- 3 Processes using the most memory
- Process name
- Amount of memory used
- Amount of resident memory
- Amount used for shared memory
- Shared memory
- Number of shared Memory Segments
- Total size of all shared memory segments
Now open some applications and leave them open. i.e. Firefox, multiple office apps, and as many other applications as you can while still maintaining a Linux system that functions(even if slow).
- Now repeat all of the data gathering steps from above and record new values
- Document before and after values and answer the following questions in Summary
- Which values changed and why? Which values remained the same and why
- What is the page cache
- What are page tables
- What is resident memory
- What is shared memory and discuss the command used to view shared memory segment information
Submission Requirements
You will submit a Word or Libre Writer Document which contains results from the above analysis and responses. I do not have access to your system so you need to be sure to provide screenshots for anything I cannot possibly know. If you tell me your system has 10GB of memory, I need proof via screenshot of command output.
Please insert your screenshots into your word document with supporting documentation which meets all requirements. You will be penalized for any results which are not backed by proof.
