Huge memory consumption while using DLNA

RouterOS General
1

Hey guys!

I’m relatively new to Mikrotik world but I really like it here.
I have a RB5009UPr+S+ to which I added a 500GB SSD over USB. I use this SSD mostly for storing media and watching movies using the Mirkotik DLNA server.
I have observed that once I start playing a movie, available memory starts dropping down to ~150 - 200 MB and it remains this way until a router reboot. It doesn’t matter if I stop watching the movie or not. The processor looks fine it tops at ~20% so no big issues here.
All functions are still usable, the only thing that triggers me is the memory consumption. And I would be totally fine with this if for example after I finish watching the movie, the available memory would come back to the so called “idle” values.

If I reboot the router and do not start any movie, the available memory is ~800MB, and it stays like this for weeks.
Currently I’m running 7.18.1 (stable) but this issue was present on previous versions as well.
If there is any other information that you need, please let me know.

Is there anyone who encountered the same issue so far?

2

I believe there is a slight misconception here in your thinking that allocated memory should be freed directly when you stop watching movies.
That’s generally not how an OS works.

The OS needs to make sure unallocated memory is made available when someone else needs it.
If that doesn’t happen, then you run out of memory and a system crash will happen.
But since you detected yourself the router keeps running nicely without any problem, with no exceptional CPU usage, there is no problem.
Not until a system crash happens.

So what you see is for me perfectly normal.
If however you start to see abnormal behavior and system crashes, then it’s time to check with support if something buggy is going on.
Usually an autosupout.rif file will be created then which you should also provide to support.

Having said that … why use a router as a media server ?
Because it can ? :laughing:

3

Hi holvoetn,

You’re probably right about the memory allocation, and as I already said I have not seen any real issues so far. To answer your question, yes I use the router as media server mainly because it can :smiley: . I’m not a heavy media user, but since I’m new to the Mikrotik world and currently exploring everything it’s possible to do with this router, I said I’ll give it a try :slight_smile:
I’ll try spinning up a container as well just to see if it’ll get out of memory.

Anyway, thanks for this point of view. Cheers!