windows_exporter/docs/collector.memory.md

memory collector

The memory collector exposes metrics about system memory usage

Metric name prefix	memory
Data source	Performance Counters
Classes	-
Enabled by default?	Yes

Flags

None

Metrics

Name	Description	Type	Labels
windows_memory_available_bytes	The amount of physical memory immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use. It is equal to the sum of memory assigned to the standby (cached), free and zero page lists	gauge	None
windows_memory_cache_bytes	Number of bytes currently being used by the file system cache	gauge	None
windows_memory_cache_bytes_peak	Maximum number of CacheBytes after the system was last restarted	gauge	None
windows_memory_cache_faults_total	Number of faults which occur when a page sought in the file system cache is not found there and must be retrieved from elsewhere in memory (soft fault) or from disk (hard fault)	counter	None
windows_memory_commit_limit	Amount of virtual memory, in bytes, that can be committed without having to extend the paging file(s)	gauge	None
windows_memory_committed_bytes	Amount of committed virtual memory, in bytes	gauge	None
windows_memory_demand_zero_faults_total	The number of zeroed pages required to satisfy faults. Zeroed pages, pages emptied of previously stored data and filled with zeros, are a security feature of Windows that prevent processes from seeing data stored by earlier processes that used the memory space	counter	None
windows_memory_free_and_zero_page_list_bytes	The amount of physical memory, in bytes, that is assigned to the free and zero page lists. This memory does not contain cached data. It is immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use	gauge	None
windows_memory_free_system_page_table_entries	Number of page table entries not being used by the system	gauge	None
windows_memory_modified_page_list_bytes	The amount of physical memory, in bytes, that is assigned to the modified page list. This memory contains cached data and code that is not actively in use by processes, the system and the system cache. This memory needs to be written out before it will be available for allocation to a process or for system use	gauge	None
windows_memory_page_faults_total	Overall rate at which faulted pages are handled by the processor	counter	None
windows_memory_swap_page_reads_total	Number of disk page reads (a single read operation reading several pages is still only counted once)	counter	None
windows_memory_swap_pages_read_total	Number of pages read across all page reads (ie counting all pages read even if they are read in a single operation)	counter	None
windows_memory_swap_pages_written_total	Number of pages written across all page writes (ie counting all pages written even if they are written in a single operation)	counter	None
windows_memory_swap_page_operations_total	Total number of swap page read and writes (PagesPersec)	counter	None
windows_memory_swap_page_writes_total	Number of disk page writes (a single write operation writing several pages is still only counted once)	counter	None
windows_memory_physical_free_bytes	Bytes of physical memory currently unused and available	gauge	None
windows_memory_physical_total_bytes	Total bytes of physical memory available to the operating system. This value does not necessarily indicate the true amount of physical memory, but what is reported to the operating system as available to it	gauge	None
windows_memory_pool_nonpaged_allocs_total	The number of calls to allocate space in the nonpaged pool. The nonpaged pool is an area of system memory area for objects that cannot be written to disk, and must remain in physical memory as long as they are allocated	counter	None
windows_memory_pool_nonpaged_bytes	Number of bytes in the non-paged pool, an area of the system virtual memory that is used for objects that cannot be written to disk, but must remain in physical memory as long as they are allocated	gauge	None
windows_memory_pool_paged_allocs_total	Number of calls to allocate space in the paged pool, regardless of the amount of space allocated in each call	counter	None
windows_memory_pool_paged_bytes	Number of bytes in the paged pool	gauge	None
windows_memory_pool_paged_resident_bytes	The size, in bytes, of the portion of the paged pool that is currently resident and active in physical memory. The paged pool is an area of the system virtual memory that is used for objects that can be written to disk when they are not being used	gauge	None
windows_memory_process_memory_limit_bytes	Maximum number of bytes of memory that can be allocated to a process	gauge	None
windows_memory_standby_cache_core_bytes	The amount of physical memory, in bytes, that is assigned to the core standby cache page lists. This memory contains cached data and code that is not actively in use by processes, the system and the system cache. It is immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use. If the system runs out of available free and zero memory, memory on lower priority standby cache page lists will be repurposed before memory on higher priority standby cache page lists	gauge	None
windows_memory_standby_cache_normal_priority_bytes	The amount of physical memory, in bytes, that is assigned to the normal priority standby cache page lists. This memory contains cached data and code that is not actively in use by processes, the system and the system cache. It is immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use. If the system runs out of available free and zero memory, memory on lower priority standby cache page lists will be repurposed before memory on higher priority standby cache page lists	gauge	None
windows_memory_standby_cache_reserve_bytes	The amount of physical memory, in bytes, that is assigned to the reserve standby cache page lists. This memory contains cached data and code that is not actively in use by processes, the system and the system cache. It is immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use. If the system runs out of available free and zero memory, memory on lower priority standby cache page lists will be repurposed before memory on higher priority standby cache page lists	gauge	None
windows_memory_system_cache_resident_bytes	The size, in bytes, of the portion of the system file cache which is currently resident and active in physical memory	gauge	None
windows_memory_system_code_resident_bytes	The size, in bytes, of the pageable operating system code that is currently resident and active in physical memory. This value is a component of Memory\System Code Total Bytes. Memory\System Code Resident Bytes (and Memory\System Code Total Bytes) does not include code that must remain in physical memory and cannot be written to disk	gauge	None
windows_memory_system_code_total_bytes	The size, in bytes, of the pageable operating system code currently mapped into the system virtual address space. This value is calculated by summing the bytes in Ntoskrnl.exe, Hal.dll, the boot drivers, and file systems loaded by Ntldr/osloader. This counter does not include code that must remain in physical memory and cannot be written to disk	gauge	None
windows_memory_system_driver_resident_bytes	The size, in bytes, of the pageable physical memory being used by device drivers. It is the working set (physical memory area) of the drivers. This value is a component of Memory\System Driver Total Bytes, which also includes driver memory that has been written to disk. Neither Memory\System Driver Resident Bytes nor Memory\System Driver Total Bytes includes memory that cannot be written to disk	gauge	None
windows_memory_system_driver_total_bytes	The size, in bytes, of the pageable virtual memory currently being used by device drivers. Pageable memory can be written to disk when it is not being used. It includes both physical memory (Memory\System Driver Resident Bytes) and code and data paged to disk. It is a component of Memory\System Code Total Bytes	gauge	None
windows_memory_transition_faults_total	Number of faults rate at which page faults are resolved by recovering pages that were being used by another process sharing the page, or were on the modified page list or the standby list, or were being written to disk at the time of the page fault. The pages were recovered without additional disk activity. Transition faults are counted in numbers of faults; because only one page is faulted in each operation, it is also equal to the number of pages faulted	counter	None
windows_memory_transition_pages_repurposed_total	Transition Pages RePurposed is the rate at which the number of transition cache pages were reused for a different purpose. These pages would have otherwise remained in the page cache to provide a (fast) soft fault (instead of retrieving it from backing store) in the event the page was accessed in the future	counter	None
windows_memory_write_copies_total	The number of page faults caused by attempting to write that were satisfied by copying the page from elsewhere in physical memory	counter	None

Example metric

This collector does not yet have explained examples, we would appreciate your help adding them!

Useful queries

Show memory usage for instance (%)

100 - 100 * windows_memory_physical_free_bytes{instance="localhost"} / windows_memory_physical_total_bytes

Alerting examples

prometheus.rules

# Alert on hosts that have exhausted all available physical memory
- alert: MemoryExhausted
  expr: windows_os_physical_memory_free_bytes == 0
  for: 10m
  labels:
    severity: high
  annotations:
    summary: "Host {{ $labels.instance }} is out of memory"
    description: "{{ $labels.instance }} has exhausted all available physical memory"

# Alert on hosts with greater than 90% memory usage
- alert: MemoryLow
  expr: 100 - 100 * windows_memory_physical_free_bytes{instance="localhost"} / windows_memory_physical_total_bytes > 90
  for: 10m
  labels:
    severity: warning
  annotations:
    summary: "Memory usage for host {{ $labels.instance }} is greater than 90%"