====== PFSense - Memory - High Memory Usage ======


===== Check State Tables =====

Navigate to **System -> Advanced -> Firewall & NAT**.

Check the **Firewall Maximum States** and **Firewall Maximum Table Entries** fields.

Each State table entry requires about 1 KB of RAM.

  * The default state table size is calculated based on 10% of the available RAM in the firewall.
  * For example, a firewall with 1 GB of RAM will default to 100,000 states which when full would use about 100 MB of RAM.
  * For large environments requiring state tables with several hundred thousand connections, or millions of connections, ensure adequate RAM is available.

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===== Check System Activity =====

Navigate to **Diagnostics -> System Activity**.

{{:pfsense:memory:pfsense_-_diagnostics_-_system_activity.png?800|}}

<WRAP info>
**NOTE:**  This is equivalent of the **top -aSH** command.
</WRAP>

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===== Check Packages =====

Some packages increase RAM requirements significantly.

  * Snort and ntop are two that should not be installed on a system with less than 1GB RAM.

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===== References =====

https://pfsense-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/monitoring/system-activity.html