How can I reduce the consumption of the `vmmem` process?

Question

I installed docker on windows home which uses WSL2 as a backend. However, since doing this a process called vmmem seems to be consistently consuming a lot of computational resources. I ran docker stop $(docker ps -aq) to kill all running containers (there were 12 - oops) which has improved the issue significantly. However, even after closing docker down vmmem is still taking ~1.5 - 2Gb of ram and ~20% CPU. Since there are no longer any containers running, shouldn't the resource consumption of vmmem be minimal? How can I reduce the consumption of the vmmem process?

“WSL 2 consumes massive amounts of RAM and doesn't return it” — Daniel B, Jun 09 '20 at 10:47
Looks like this is a known issue and people are working on it. I'll wait for the fix. Thanks for the link. — CiaranWelsh, Jun 11 '20 at 09:02
I found this article after seeing that WSL was using 11GB of memory. A few minutes later, and just before I went to disable WSL, it had dropped to 1.3 GM of memory usage. I had just done a Windows update and restart, so I presume that it had some paperwork to do and then released the resources it needed. Long story short, give it 10 minutes before turning it off, especially if you use WSL even occasionally. — GaTechThomas, Aug 29 '23 at 13:11

score 210 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 02 '21 at 10:37

210

Daniiel B is on the money. To turn off Vmmem simply go into Powershell or whatever terminal you like to use under admin rights and enter the command wsl --shutdown, when your done with playing in wsl1/2.

edited Jun 02 '21 at 10:37

Sadeq Dousti

681

answered Jul 28 '20 at 09:36

smigel

2,156

85

this doesn't answer the question - I need my dockers to run, but I just want to bound the RAM consumption – Joey Baruch Nov 01 '20 at 16:45
5

That pretty much answer your question. For as long as you use docker (or anything using WLS2 as the backend), you'll see vmmem consuming your RAM.
If you run your dockers, vmmem will be there.
– luis.espinal Mar 29 '21 at 14:25
Docker generate error over unexpected shutdown, is there any better way to turn it off? – Hassan Faghihi Aug 23 '21 at 09:02
As of 10/2022 there is yet to be an official fix from Microsoft for this problem. Looks like this is still the best "solution." – Eduardo Barrera Oct 13 '22 at 14:21
When you kill wsl through wsl --shutdown after few minutes your docker desktop process using WSL as backend is killed, and vmmem process is also killed. So, clearly vmmem is linked with WSL – srk Apr 29 '23 at 04:01
dumbest answer ever, this kills docker so how does it help anything? – Piliponful Nov 30 '23 at 15:07
How can we automate this to happen every time we close WSL? – user4038800 Dec 15 '23 at 02:36

score 180 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 14 '21 at 07:28

180

I edit the WSL config to limit the memory usage as mentioned here.

# turn off all wsl instances such as docker-desktop
wsl --shutdown
notepad "$env:USERPROFILE/.wslconfig"

Set the values you want for CPU core and Memory:

[wsl2]
memory=3GB   # Limits VM memory in WSL 2 up to 3GB
processors=2 # Makes the WSL 2 VM use two virtual processors

edited Oct 14 '21 at 07:28

Shibumi

103

answered Mar 24 '21 at 00:20

Adonis H.

1,909

6

This is also a great answer or should be part of core answer. Capping VM limit helps to keep your system usable. – bgs Mar 29 '23 at 20:18
9

This should be the accepted answer – Chidozie Nnachor May 03 '23 at 11:50
2

Does this file have to be created? Or should I find it already existing? – Sandburg Jul 06 '23 at 07:52
1

As of last month, you can add experimental.autoMemoryReclaim=gradual to your .wslconfig so WSL gradually releases memory to windows – Mateus Wolkmer Oct 18 '23 at 01:23

Lorenzo · Answer 3 · 2021-11-04T16:21:22.503

46

vmmem even after docker has shut down, will run for a few seconds up to 1 minute before completely shutting off. So try shutting down your containers and docker and it should disappear soon enough.

The accepted answer talks about shutting down WSL (the windows subsystem for Linux) which makes sense if you actually opened and installed a distro, but since you mentioned about Docker, i'm guessing your vmmem is just showing the usage of docker containers only.

Here's a nice explanation from a trustworthy individual : https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180717-00/?p=99265

Edit:

Considering the main question was about how to reduce the consumption of RAM, and since you're using docker; take a look at : Docker Resource Contraints

More specifically the --memory=2g parameter, you can limit the RAM a container will use, and in turn vmmem itself will use less RAM as well.

edited Nov 04 '21 at 16:21

answered Nov 09 '20 at 13:01

Lorenzo

559

8

This works. Close Docker Desktop and after a minute, vmmem disappears from Task Manager. – Tonatio Apr 15 '21 at 07:32
3

Similarly, a minute after closing all WSL terminals, vmmem goes away – Bob Stein Jul 29 '21 at 19:28
2

Should be accepted answer. – T.Todua Oct 26 '21 at 09:23
"Quit docker desktop" is the context menu option to choose when clicking the icon in the system tray. I also found that if the "vmms" service has been stopped manually the vmmem process will linger long after quitting docker, but starting the "vmms" service will actually terminate the vmmem process (or allow it to terminate). – StingyJack Dec 04 '22 at 23:45
What if I'm using Rancher? I exited Rancher desktop and stopped the Rancher Windows service, and waited several minutes, yet vmmem persists. I must be missing something. – Patrick Szalapski Mar 22 '23 at 14:31
@Patrick Szalapski Rancher might need the service to free the memory, or the VM could have a error on startup which forces it to boot loop so memory is never freed. I honestly don't know Rancher so it probably would be safer to ask on a separate question where you can tag Rancher and more qualified people could help! – Lorenzo Mar 22 '23 at 16:53
Works like charm! – Ram May 24 '23 at 18:09

score 23 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 18 '21 at 08:23

23

Restart WSL2, by running the following command in PowerShell right click and run in Administrator mode:

Restart-Service LxssManager

answered Mar 18 '21 at 08:23

Michael Kaufman

331

Or wsl --restart – tejasvi88 Jun 28 '22 at 09:07
@tejasvi88 wsl --restart does nothing, it's not recognized argument – everis Jan 28 '23 at 12:22
@everis - wsl --restart is not a Powershell parameter to Restart-Service LxssManager, if I understand you correctly? wsl --restart is a standalone command which can be invoked from a cmd shell, or a Powershell, if the system path knows where WSL lives. – user924272 Jan 11 '24 at 23:05

score 15 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 10 '21 at 22:51

15

The memory is being consumed by Linux to cache files. It can be seen in the buff/cache section of free command. To drop the cache, simply run echo 3 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches.

answered Jan 10 '21 at 22:51

tejasvi88

308

this is it. combining this cache clearing command with limiting WSL memory usage, I'm happy – Diego Lima Jan 23 '22 at 11:26
This solution allow to free some RAM while keeping wsl / Docker up. I've added some detail. – 4wk_ Apr 18 '23 at 07:17

score 11 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 16 '22 at 04:04

11

I just created the %UserProfile%\.wslconfig file with these two lines and left everything else untouched. It worked fine.

[wsl2]
memory=8GB

I did a full shutdown right after adding the file for WSL to pick up the new settings.

$ wsl --shutdown

See additional information from Microsoft here: Advanced settings configuration in WSL

answered Nov 16 '22 at 04:04

Jorge Garcia

211

Tnx! This was all I needed, memory=4GB (on my 8GB machine )-; ) ... And of course wsl to restart it. Now, how did I get separate "terminal" windows with bash running before (not the powershell window)!? Thanks! – shellter Mar 22 '23 at 23:19

score 9 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 15 '21 at 14:52

9

If you want to stop vmmem process, try this way

open start menu -> find 'Hyper-V Manager' just by typing
stop the virtual machine -> right-click -> turn off

answered Apr 15 '21 at 14:52

Alexandr Kovalenko

211

score 9 · Answer 8 · answered May 02 '22 at 16:03

9

This question was around 2 years old at the time I looked at it and was I was experiencing just now seeing the problems. Might be due to enabling Kubernetes inside Docker for Windows (I'm not sure about that).

I was able to shutdown the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) using the wsl --shutdown command which did free memory but disabled the use of Docker.

So, I updated my ~/.wslconfig file (aka %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig) as suggested to reduce memory. I believe that helped.

Later found out is my WSL subsystem was out of date and not being updated (by default) with Windows Updates because I had disabled Receive updates for other Microsoft products when you update Windows.

So I enabled that, and ran wsl --update (in admin shell), and my WSL version was updated from 3/16/21 (Kernel Version 5.4.72) to today (5/2/22) (Kernel Version 5.10.102.1).

I'm hoping this will also help.

answered May 02 '22 at 16:03

PatS

463

Any issues reducing memory via .wslconfig when kubernetes enabled? I'm up to 16GB usage in vmmem messing with devcontainers and local kubernetes. I'm also at version 5.10.102.1 and just updated to 5.15.79.1 - didn't realise it was manual update! – Andez Jan 26 '23 at 14:12
I ended up disabling kubernetes due to some issues, I can't recall exactly what they were to answer your question. I also have a local (Linux based) kubernetes (K8S) environment so I don't need to use the Docker for Windows implementation of kubernetes. Most likely, it was memory related and I wanted to make sure the issue with docker using too much memory was fixed which it appears to be. – PatS Jan 27 '23 at 16:27
wsl --update is a good idea is you use WSL 2. – gavenkoa Mar 16 '24 at 23:14

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 04 '20 at 20:55

4

In my case I do not have WSL installed but do have Docker. I had shut down the docker process ungracefully then noticed some time later that vmmem was using a lot of CPU. Windows did not allow me to kill the vmmem process.

I had to open Docker again and shut it down gracefully via the system tray icon. After that vmmem was no longer running at all.

answered Dec 04 '20 at 20:55

Bill Tarbell

453

Odd, I thought docker on windows only worked with WSL. – CiaranWelsh Dec 04 '20 at 23:28
I'm not an expert on the matter, but i did verify that Windows Subsystem for Linux is not checked in my Windows Features list. – Bill Tarbell Dec 07 '20 at 18:19
1

@CiaranWelsh it only works with WSL for Windows 10 Home, but for other systems like Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise it doesn't need WSL: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/ – dhasson Dec 27 '20 at 20:57
That makes sense.. I'm on Win10 Enterprise. – Bill Tarbell Dec 28 '20 at 15:16
[Gracefully] closing Docker Desktop app worked for me. – truefusion Aug 31 '22 at 12:11

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 16 '22 at 19:22

According to this thread: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/6982, using memory setting in .wslconfig doesn't always work.

Solution seems to be to:

Add this to \Users\<USERPROFILE>\.wslconfig (create the file if it doesn't exist)

[wsl2]
guiApplications=false

Restart wsl by running wsl --shutdown in powershell or command prompt (it says shutdown but it actually stops and restarts all running wsl distributions)

MikeBoolean · Answer 11 · 2022-04-23T12:05:56.103

Could it relate to this????

For my issues, high CPU and high RAM usage by vmmem, I have tried all the solutions I could look up here and elsewhere for WSL2. It seems that for some types of tasks, WSL2 will eat up your memory and not spit it out when done...

Exceptions for using WSL 1 rather than WSL 2:

WSL 2's memory usage grows and shrinks as you use it. When a process frees memory this is automatically returned to Windows. However, as of right now WSL 2 does not yet release cached pages in memory back to Windows until the WSL instance is shut down. If you have long running WSL sessions, or access a very large amount of files, this cache can take up memory on Windows. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/compare-versions

I don't need WSL2 for this specific task... I'm trying WLS1 now...

I'll post an update on how it goes...

Update: Shifting to WSL1, solves it for me when running many subprocesses, it seems. I have been running way past the time point where it overloads the RAM and comes to a halt.

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. — Community, Apr 23 '22 at 09:39

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 07 '23 at 05:41

1

Aside from WSL, the Android Subsystem could also be the culprit.

answered Apr 07 '23 at 05:41

Lubo Kanev

170

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 30 '22 at 14:39

0

open cmd as Admin

net stop vmcompute

answered Jun 30 '22 at 14:39

Emmanuel Mavely

1

1

This command stops the local Hyper-V host computing service, so not sure how it is related. Could you explain? Also, this did not change the high CPU usage of vmmem on my machine. – Joël Sep 21 '23 at 08:11

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered May 05 '23 at 09:57

I had the same issue with Windows 10 Version 20H2 and OS Build 19042.1466 and creating the ".wslconfig" file as the guys told solved my problem. But my concern: is this solution like a memory suppression for the containers and made my container slow? Is there any idea regarding this memory usage? Is it a memory leakage? Or is it only memory reservation that Docker/WSL2 doing? I didn't face this issue in Windows 11 Version 22H2 and OS build 22621.1555 till now at least.

How can I reduce the consumption of the `vmmem` process?

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