Possible Memory Leak?

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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likudio
Posts: 18
Joined: 23. Nov 2015, 11:07

Possible Memory Leak?

Post by likudio »

Hi,

I have VirtualBox version 6.1.26 r145957 (Qt5.6.2) installed on a Windows 10 21H1 (OS Build 19043.1165), sitting on an Intel(R) Xeon(R) E-2236 CPU (6 cores, 12 threads) and 64GB DDR4 RAM.
On this machine, I have 2 virtual machines:
- a Debian Linux 9 (with 2 allocated threads and 2GB RAM) and
- a Debian Linux 10 (with 2 allocated threads and 1GB RAM) .

The problem is, the memory footprint of these machines start with about 100-150MB RAM each, and grow with about 150-200MB per day, way more over their allocated limit.
Few days ago I found out by looking into task manager, that one of the machines took about 8GB RAM and another one 6GB RAM.

Restarted them, started again with 100-150MB memory usage, and now the memory is growing once again day by day (currently reached 1.2GB and still growing).
These VMs don't do anything special, as they're development machines which I use from time to time, no intensive stuff is going on there, but they're always on.

Is there any information I could follow to fix this, or provide more data that could help any of you find a probable cause?

Thanks,
A.
Martin
Volunteer
Posts: 2560
Joined: 30. May 2007, 18:05
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: PUEL
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Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by Martin »

How do you measure the memory footprint?
Are you sure that this doesn't include disk caching?
likudio
Posts: 18
Joined: 23. Nov 2015, 11:07

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by likudio »

In the very beginning I saw this directly into Task Manager, the Memory tab/column.
But just to confirm it, I then used both RAMMap and Process Explorer (from Microsoft Sysinternals).
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by scottgus1 »

It's likely that a forum guru who could look into this will need at least a VM log while the problem is happening, and some sort of log from the host to corroborate the extra host RAM usage.

For the VM log, Start the VM from full power off, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Please right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip the log file, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

For the host memory log, I have no suggestions. Try to find a way to show what is happening.
likudio
Posts: 18
Joined: 23. Nov 2015, 11:07

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by likudio »

Luckily, I found the rotated logs of the VMs which I shut down, when I saw that it was consuming 8GB of RAM, you have it attached.
Back then I was using v6.1.22 r144080 (not .26).
I updated to v6.1.26 afterwards, thinking the problem will stop occurring, but it still happens with the current version too.
Thanks!
Attachments
vbox-logs-memory-issue.zip
VBox Logs (Memory issue)
(80.06 KiB) Downloaded 15 times
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by scottgus1 »

Thanks for the logs.

It might be more helpful if you make a new attempt with the VMs, so the host memory log you're working on getting will coordinate with the VM logs that Virtualbox will make.

Having the coordinated set might help.
likudio
Posts: 18
Joined: 23. Nov 2015, 11:07

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by likudio »

Ok, currently the VMs are both running, and one of them is just above its allocated limit, most probably it'll increase further in the upcoming days.

Allocated RAM: 1024MB
Currently using: 1123MB

Inside the Linux VM, the RAM reporting says only 70MiB used, while having 132MiB and 778MiB free (attached print-screen).
I also attached the VBox log and a print-screen from RAMMap showing the memory usage.

Please let me know if I can provide any else supporting evidence.
Thank you!
Attachments
Linux-RAM-Reporting.png
Linux-RAM-Reporting.png (6.8 KiB) Viewed 3135 times
RAMMap PID 31616.png
RAMMap PID 31616.png (122.37 KiB) Viewed 3135 times
vbox-log-pid-31616.zip
(18.96 KiB) Downloaded 12 times
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by fth0 »

Uninstall the "4t Tray Minimizer" on the host, reboot, start the VM, let it run for a few hours, check the memory usage, shut the VM down from within the guest OS, and post a new (zipped) VBox.log file.
likudio
Posts: 18
Joined: 23. Nov 2015, 11:07

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by likudio »

You were right, 4-Tray Minimizer was the one at fault... right now I start the VMs with Detachable GUIs and their memory footprint does not go over 50MB.
Really thank you for your input.

I looked over the logs too and saw 4-Tray Minimizer there, but not even for a second made me think it could affect the VMs.
I was using it to minimize the GUI to tray, since few years ago, Detachable GUI wasn't an option yet, and I developed at habit to install and use it - until now.

Once again, thank you.
The topic can be closed.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Possible Memory Leak?

Post by scottgus1 »

Awesome! Glad you're up and running!
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