CentOS does not recognize new RAM or memory that was added to server

Question

I am running CentOS 5.9 i386 on a Citrix XenServer 5.6. I installed CentOS with 3GB memory, 2GB swap. I later wanted to add more memory, so I shutdown the server and configured the VM for 8GB. After rebooting, the server still shows available memory to be 3GB.

I tried editing /boot/grub/grub.conf and adding mem=xxM to the configuration, however the system still reports that I only have 3GB memory available.

Is there some configuration I am missing that is causing CentOS to miss the additional memory? Any help is much appreciated, and thanks in advance

EDIT: Below is the results of uname-a

[root@SERVER ~]# uname -a
Linux SERVER.DOMAIN.EXAMPLE 2.6.18-348.el5 #1 SMP Tue Jan 8 17:57:28 EST 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

If memory serves, you need the PAE kernel to see more than 4GB of memory on an i386-class machine. Try `yum list kernel-*|grep PAE` to see if there's one available. — MadHatter, Sep 20 '13 at 14:40
Here are the results of the command `kernel-PAE.i686 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5 updates kernel-PAE-devel.i686 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5 updates ` — Jake A, Sep 20 '13 at 14:53
@MichaelHampton The server is for a development environment that is still using 32bit software; wasn't by choice. — Jake A, Sep 20 '13 at 15:21
This doesn't mean you can't install 64-bit Linux. It'll run 32-bit software just fine, and won't have silly memory problems like this. — Michael Hampton, Sep 20 '13 at 15:22
@MadHatter How do I install the PAE kernel? Thanks again for your help — Jake A, Sep 20 '13 at 15:22
@MadHatter Nevermind, I found out, I will post the answer below — Jake A, Sep 20 '13 at 15:29
@MichaelHamptop the license we have for the software is for 32bit. — Jake A, Sep 20 '13 at 16:32

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 20 '13 at 19:40

As MadHatter has pointed out, you need to install the PAE kernel and change GRUB default settings to boot to this kernel. This is needed if you have more that 4GB memory installed.

Step 1: Install kernel-PAE

yum install kernel-PAE kernel-PAE-devel

Step 2: Edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel

  # UPDATEDEFAULT specifies if new-kernel-pkg should make
  # new kernels the default 
    UPDATEDEFAULT=yes

  # DEFAULTKERNEL specifies the default kernel package type 
    DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel-PAE

Step 3: Change GRUB to boot to kernel-PAE by default. Edit /etc/grub.conf and change the default number to match the boot order number for kernel-PAE. Boot order numbers start with 0.

For example, in/etc/grub.conf, my default below should be set to 1 in order to boot kernel-PAE

default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-348.16.1.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-348.16.1.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ mem=8192M
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-348.16.1.el5.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-348.16.1.el5PAE)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-348.16.1.el5PAE ro root=LABEL=/ mem=8192M
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-348.16.1.el5PAE.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-348.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-348.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ mem=8192M
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-348.el5.img

CentOS does not recognize new RAM or memory that was added to server

1 Answers1