# High memory utilization by BIND



## manju_kalita (Jul 21, 2011)

I am running a Resolver running BIND 9.6.2-P2 on FreeBSD 7.1.  During peak traffic, this resolver is servicing ~300Kqueries/minute. The resolver is configured to allow 200tcp clients and 10000 recursive clients simultaneously. The max-cache-size limit has not been configured.

The memory utilization on the resolver keeps increasing steadily and in stepped pattern. Recently it shot up to 80% of the total RAM of 24GB. In order to retain the normal functioning, named had to be restarted. Memory utilization by named is around 7K MB and shown as under:

```
PID USERNAME   THR PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE  C   TIME   WCPU COMMAND
37295 bind         1   4    0  7534M  6080M kqread f  77.3H 39.79% named
```

Can you please advise on what needs to be done to get rid of this high, consistently increasing memory utilization problem? If we limit the max-cache-size, will it reduced?

Thanks,
Manju


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## vermaden (Jul 21, 2011)

Have You thought about migrating to NSD, the other authoritative DNS sever? It uses configuration in the BIND format so the transition should not be that hard.


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## AndyUKG (Jul 21, 2011)

manju_kalita said:
			
		

> If we limit the max-cache-size, will it reduced?



Setting max size I would have thought is exactly what you need, BIND 9.6 has no limit set by default so set this to something appropriate for the amount of RAM you are prepared to let BIND use...

thanks Andy.


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## Crest (Jul 21, 2011)

NSD is no resolver. Unbound would be good alternative to BIND configured as resolver.


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## vermaden (Jul 22, 2011)

@Crest

True, I somehow omitted the 'resolver' text near the BIND name


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