It'll show the most wasting kernel zones. Use zprint to check information about kernel usage, it's possible by: sudo zprint -t -s | head -n20 Use vm_stat to show virtual memory statistics. Use spindump to profile entire system, it'll generate /tmp/spindump.txt file (including kernel and its extensions). Older version: sudo footprint -all -categories -swapped -collapseSharing Run footprint to gather detailed memory information on a per-VM-region type level and swapped bytes: sudo footprint -a See: How do you get system diagnostic files from OS X? During analysis, try to not do anything, when done - consider uncompressing the generated file and analyse the logs. (period) to quickly gather system-wide diagnostic information helpful in investigating system memory/performance issues (will appear in /var/tmp) either by you or Apple guys. Use sysdiagnose command (can be triggered by hitting Shift- Control- ⌥- ⌘. If not, Google it and learn more about it. Now check which process generated the most system calls in that given time (last column) and if you recognise it, consider kill it. Run sudo syscallbypid.d (or syscallbyproc.d), wait a bit, hit Control- C. Learn more at: How do I debug an out-of-control “kernel_task” process? Then hit Control- C to stop it.Īction: Consider killing apps which appears frequently on the list, but you're not using them. Run sudo fs_usage in Terminal to report system calls and page faults related to filesystem activity in real-time (I think this is the best option from all other). Use Activity Monitor to read system memory and determine how much CPU, RAM and Disk is being used.Īlternatively run top in Terminal and hold Space to refresh - easier to find the cause problem ( swapins/ swapouts/ disks?). Run Console.app and check on ' All Messages' to see if anything unusual currently is happening.Here are some methods which help to investigate OS X kernel usage issues: Basic methods Usually this is related to faulty or heavy process which overusing system resources (such as indexing storage, running VMs, too many tabs in the web browser or some other background processes). There are many things that go wrong with high kernel task usage. My question is, how do I check on high memory usage of kernel task or how to properly deal with that kind of situation? I've tried to take Sample with Activity Monitor, but it's greyed out.Ģ.3GHz Intel Core i7 (late 2013) with 16GB RAM. Networks: packets: 299419263/363G in, 142126838/14G out.ĭisks: 58970173/1079G read, 20012389/1120G written.Īt the end my OS X frozen and I had to do hard reset, repair my SDD in recovery mode and fixing afterwards (recovering lost work, fixing application conflicts, checking my lost+found folder, Chrome/Terminal tabs gone, headache, etc.). MemRegions: 757970 total, 2139M resident, 56M private, 907M shared. My top stats before my kernel freeze: Processes: 344 total, 2 running, 5 stuck, 337 sleeping, 2580 threads 19:23:56
However I've still 20GB of space free on my SDD.Īctivity Monitor didn't help much whilst my OS X was heading to the destruction. I've obviously closed few which I could, but it didn't help.Īfter checking on memory, it seems kernel task ate 7GB and 22.36GB swap memory was used of total 23GB (which obviously was the case). To avoid problems with your computer, quit any applications you are not using.
Your system has run out of application memory.
I was using my MacBook Pro (with 16GB of RAM) as usual and out of blue I've this popup that: