# Elasticsearch server process using 1.8x the configured heap memory

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-server-process-using-1-8x-the-configured-heap-memory/60849>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 19, 2016, 8:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-server-process-using-1-8x-the-configured-heap-memory/60849 "2016-09-19T08:25:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mayur\_Mohite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mayur\_Mohite](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mayur_Mohite)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 8:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-server-process-using-1-8x-the-configured-heap-memory/60849/1 "2016-09-19T08:25:23Z")

</div>

We are running elasticsearch v2.3.3 on a 7 node cluster.  
Each machine in the cluster has 64 GB of ram.  
We have configured **30GB heap size** for each elasticsearch jvm.  
The elasticsearch java process is consuming nearly **55 GB of resident memory**.  
What could be the cause of this huge memory usage over heap?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 9:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-server-process-using-1-8x-the-configured-heap-memory/60849/2 "2016-09-19T09:04:24Z")

</div>

This is not JVM heap, this is the OS caching things and is nothing ES can control.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mayur\_Mohite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mayur\_Mohite](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mayur_Mohite)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 9:09am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-server-process-using-1-8x-the-configured-heap-memory/60849/3 "2016-09-19T09:09:57Z")

</div>

The 55 GB resident size is of elasticsearch java process and not of linux buffer cache.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 9:10am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-server-process-using-1-8x-the-configured-heap-memory/60849/4 "2016-09-19T09:10:57Z")

</div>

ES can _only ever_ use whatever you assign to the JVM.

This has been asked before, you may want to search for similar things and look at the answers there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-server-process-using-1-8x-the-configured-heap-memory/60849/5 "2017-07-05T22:19:20Z")

</div>