Kubernetes memory, explained

See what is really consuming Pod memory.

Kubernetes tells you memory is high. KubeMemLens separates the observed charge into application memory, file cache, shmem and residual signals so you can investigate why.

Get startedView on GitHub

Get KubeMemLens · Tested on AWS EKS · Linux and cgroup v2

kubectl memlens tuiread-only evidence
KubeMemLens terminal interface showing Pod memory composition, risk order and cgroup signals
KubeMemLens in action during AWS EKS testing. Node identifiers are redacted.Tap the image to inspect it at full size.

01 · Composition

A single memory number is not a diagnosis.

kubectl top can tell you that memory is high. It cannot tell you whether the charge comes from application memory, filesystem cache, tmpfs, pressure or another cgroup signal.

Repository sample · cache-heavy

Total observed charge4.10 GiB
Anonymous memory
1.20 GiB
File cache
2.51 GiB
Shmem / tmpfs
90.00 MiB
Residual / other
307.20 MiB
Diagnosiscache-heavy
Severityinfo
Confidencemedium

02 · Workflow

From signal to evidence.

Stay in the terminal and move through the investigation with read-only commands. KubeMemLens reports evidence and caveats; it does not mutate workloads.

Explore the CLI
  1. 01

    Find

    kubectl memlens top pods -A --sort-by cache

    Bring the Pods with the strongest memory signals to the top.

  2. 02

    Explain

    kubectl memlens explain pod api-123 -n production

    Inspect composition, limits, pressure and the evidence behind the diagnosis.

  3. 03

    Preserve

    kubectl memlens capture -n production --pod api-123 --include-history -o incident.json

    Write a redacted incident capture that you can review and compare.

03 · Evidence

Tested on AWS EKS.

Memory inspection, capture and replay, access isolation, recovery and cleanup were exercised on AWS EKS. Use KubeMemLens in your workflow and tell us what you find.

EKS testingAL2023 · containerd · amd64 · two managed nodesEnvironment details ↗
FeedbackFound a bug or have a suggestion?Open a GitHub issue ↗

Exact supported and unsupported combinations are maintained in the compatibility contract.

Start here

Start investigating memory.

Install KubeMemLens, open the terminal dashboard and inspect your workloads.Send feedback or report a bug on GitHub.

helm upgrade --install kube-memlens \
  oci://ghcr.io/danushkastanley/charts/kube-memlens \
  --version 1.0.0 \
  --namespace kube-memlens \
  --create-namespace \
  --set-string image.repository=ghcr.io/danushkastanley/kube-memlens \
  --set-string image.digest=sha256:a14e92d22823a207853256572a572127f10e0f03281e9f381bca2b41d85cd795

Read the installation guideDownload v1.0.0