# ARC usage FreeBSD 10.0



## Windmill (May 19, 2014)

I use FreeBSD 10.0 and noticed that after a while the system is up, ARC usage is 4 GB or more. That's not a problem since I have 6 GB of RAM, howewer is there a way to reduce ARC usage?


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## Toast (May 19, 2014)

Add 
	
	



```
vfs.zfs.arc_max="4G"
```
 to /boot/loader.conf.
https://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFSTuningGuide


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## AndyUKG (May 20, 2014)

The idea with the ARC is that if you have programs that need the memory it will be freed from the ARC, where there is unused memory it will logically be used by the ARC to improve system performance. Only if you are sure that this isn't working as you would like/expect should you start hard coding limits...


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