Get memory population in Linux

Get memory population in Linux

^{Created: 2018-08-09 22:29:31 | Last modified: 2020-09-22 22:40:35}
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A list of commands to get what memory modules are populated in Linux. This is useful for knowing what to install when installing additional memory in a server, pc or laptop without shutting down to open the hood.

If you already have a server installed and running and need to get the memory population and part numbers you can use dmidecode with a few options you can get this information.

Get a list of the memory arrays inside a server/pc/laptop

dmidecode -t 16

Get a full list of the memory bays inside a server/pc/laptop

dmidecode -t memory

Get a list of free memory bays inside a server/pc/laptop (as above but extracted relevant information)

dmidecode -t memory | grep -i size

Example. Get a list unpopulated memory slots in a server

#> dmidecode -t memory | grep -i size
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: 8192 MB
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed
        Size: No Module Installed

I have a total size of 64GB of memory, since this server only has one CPU I can populate another 4 * 8GB modules to increase the total RAM size to 96GB