named and ram

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Kalin" == Kalin Mintchev <kalin at el.net> writes:

    Kalin> this is probably a stupid question but..  can anybody
    Kalin> explain why named is using so much ram?

It uses as much RAM as it needs to load the zone files you feed it.
And to cache the answers to the queries made by your clients. If the
server is using "too much" memory, do something about either of these
things. Or both of them. Forcing the name server to use less memory
than it needs is counterproductive.

    Kalin> on a RH 8 box, BIND 9.2.1

Upgrade to 9.2.3. Though its memory footprint won't be any different
from 9.2.1, all other things being equal.

    Kalin> there are multiple processes - 5 - and each one is taking
    Kalin> up to 6% of the ram.

No there aren't. What you're seeing is an example of Linux
idiocy. This is explained in the BIND9 FAQ. Read it.