> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://platform9.com/kb/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://platform9.com/kb/pmk/solutions/high-memory-consumption-by-journald.md).

# High Memory Consumption by Journald Causing Cluster Instability

## Problem

Journald seems to consume more than expected amount of memory causing cluster nodes instability.

## Environment

* Centos, RedHat - v7+

## Cause

* The `systemd` journal is configured by default to store logs only in a small ring-buffer in `_/run/log/journal_`, which is not persistent.
* Systemd-journald on some linux distros is configured to auto-detect which storage system to use for journal files, "volatile" or "persistent". The *`/var/log/journal`* file is not created by default, so the in-memory (tmpfs) `_/run/log/journal_` location is used. By default, it is configured to allow up to 4 GB of log data be stored. As a consequence, heavy journal activity can eat up memory to the default of 4 GB for the `_/run_` file system. For memory constrained environments, this can be significant

## Resolution

To limit the amount of in-memory logs stored in /run/log/journal, set the following in *`/etc/systemd/journald.conf`* :

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Bash" %}

```bash
---

RuntimeMaxUse=500M

RuntimeMaxFileSize=10M

---
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}


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