ASA - MEMPOOL_DMA

[jasmina27s]

Hello,

Does anyone knows how to get more detailed info about ASA DMA memory pool?

We have an ASA device which has an alarm regarding low DMA free memory.

show mem detail, says following:

Free memory:                     867150136 bytes (81%)
Used memory:
     Allocated memory in use:     87873224 bytes ( 8%)
     Reserved memory:            118718464 bytes (11%)
-----------------------------   ----------------
Total memory:                   1073741824 bytes (100%)

Dynamic Shared Objects(DSO):          0 bytes

Least free memory:      863867976 bytes (80%)
Most used memory:       209873848 bytes (20%)

MEMPOOL_DMA POOL STATS:

Non-mmapped bytes allocated =   53248000
Number of free chunks       =         65
Number of mmapped regions   =          0
Mmapped bytes allocated     =          0
Max memory footprint        =   53248000
Keepcost                    =    5165088
Max contiguous free mem     =    5165088
Allocated memory in use     =   48029112
Free memory                 =    5218888

----- fragmented memory statistics -----
             
fragment size       count          total
    (bytes)                        (bytes)
----------------  ----------  --------------
           16             3             48
           24            14            336
           32             3             96
           40            17            680
           48             1             48**
           48            21           1008
          144             1            144
          512             2           1240
         1024             1           1240
        16384             1          21280
        24576             1          27680
      5165088             1        5165088*

*  - top most releasable chunk.
** - contiguous memory on top of heap.

----- allocated memory statistics -----

fragment size       count          total
    (bytes)                        (bytes)
----------------  ----------  --------------
           48            12            576
           56          1417          79352
           64           131           8384
           72            16           1152
           80            13           1040
           88             2            176
          112            22           2464
          120             5            600
          128             1            128
          136             6            816
          144             7           1008
          152             2            304
          160             1            160
          168             3            504
          176             8           1408
          184             2            368
          232             1            232
          248             1            248
          256             7           1792
          384             2            768
          512             8           4096
         1024           100         102400
         2048             1           2048
         4096             4          16384
         8192            12          98304
        16384             5          81920
        24576             2          49152
        32768             3          98304
        65536             9         589824
        98304             2         196608
       131072             1         131072
       196608             7        1376256
       262144             7        1835008
       393216             1         393216
       524288            11        5767168
       786432             1         786432
      1048576             3        3145728
      1572864             1        1572864
      2097152             1        2097152
      4194304             1        4194304
      6291456             1        6291456
     12582912             1       12582912

.................................//.......................

What can be using this memory and how can we get more detailed info about it?

ASA has an IPS module. Can that be a reason for DMA memory usage?

Thanks!

BR,

Jasmina

[mirober2]

Hi Jasmina,

The DMA pool is used primarily for VPN services. As a workaround, you could try disabling some of this functionality and reloading the ASA to see how much the free memory increases.

I would suggest opening a TAC case and including the full output of 'show memory detail' and 'show tech' so the engineer can investigate which specific  process is using the most memory.

-Mike

[jasmina27s]

Hello MIke,

Thanks for aswering!

This particular ASA device does not have any VPN configuration,

That is why the memory output is strange.

SW version is 8.2.3

Regards,

Jasmina