NI Distributed System Manager Displays Incorrect Memory Usage on PXI RT Target

Issue Details

I am using NI Distributed System Manager to monitor CPU and RAM usage on my PXI Real-Time (RT) target. However, the tool appears to report a maximum of only 4 GB of memory. When the memory usage reaches 100% (4 GB), the displayed value overflows and resets to 0%.
 
The PXI RT controller is equipped with 8 GB of RAM. Due to this limitation, it is difficult to accurately track the actual memory usage of the system using NI Distributed System Manager.

Solution

This behavior is expected when using NI Distributed System Manager, as it has a display limitation when reporting memory usage. To accurately monitor the actual memory usage on the PXI RT target, you can try the following alternative methods:

1) Using the Resource Monitor VI shipping example

In LabVIEW, navigate to: Help>>Find Examples>>Hardware Input and Output>>System Configuration>>Resource Monitor.vi

Open the VI, add your target IP address, and run it. The graph displays the available memory over time. If memory consumption increases, you will observe a corresponding decrease in available memory.

2) Using Secure Shell (SSH)

You can connect to the RT target using PuTTY (third-party Telnet/SSH client). Once connected, run the top command to monitor the available memory and overall system resource usage in real time.

You can refer to below Knowledge Base (KB) article:
How to Monitor a Task Consuming Too Much on a Linux Real Time Target?

Additional Information

The screenshot below demonstrates both methods. It shows that the total memory on the PXIe-8880 RT controller is around 8 GB, and the available memory is around 5 GB since there is a VI running on the target.

The left side is using Method 1 (Resource Monitor), and the right side is using Method 2 (PuTTY with the top command).