[IGN-14691, IGN-14693] Memory Indicator Turns Red at 50% in Diagnostics > Overview > Performance

In Diagnostics > Overview > Performance, the memory indicator turns red at 50% usage (e.g., 4/8 GB).

As I understand it, this serves no real purpose since a sawtooth pattern in the below 40 - up to 90% range is normal. The red highlight doesn't indicate an issue—you still need to check the usage pattern itself.

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I’ll look into seeing what we can do to better reflect potential issues in this space.

Is it possible to wait for the memory value to remain above 90% for a period of time and then change the color? That would be a better indicator that something is wrong, as the sawtooth would normally repeat pretty quickly.

FWIW this coloration issue exists in its own capacity in 8.1 as well.

Short answer: Absolutely.

Long answer: But not on the front-end, where ALL displayed data is based on the most recent response from the back-end. In order for us to properly convey a warning state based on anything other then point-in-time data, the back-end needs to inform us that the system is in such a state. The proper fix is likely an additional field as part of the overview response we are using to build that UI.

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Would a sparkline work better here for the memory usage instead of a pie chart? If the purpose is to provide reflect the current health of the system, a sparkline would be able to show the sawtooth pattern (or lack of).

You have that available on the Performance page: /app/diagnostics/performance

The field in question is meant to be a “quick” indicator as opposed to the more in-depth chart.

I am aware of the one on the diagnostics page, but I was thinking one even simpler for the performance overview. Just enough to show the general shape of the memory trend, no axis, no gridlines.

I guess this gets into the challenge of the simplest way to articulate the system status, with minimal screen space available.

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It really does. The Overview page with the indicator in question is really just meant to be an at-a-glance page and charts really require a more devoted, concentrated effort to fully understand what you’re being shown. Our designs focused in part on keeping complex UI out of the Overview pages.

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We’re going to approach this with two efforts:

  1. 8.3.3 (target) (IGN-14693): Bump the threshold for displaying the warning indication to 90% consumption in an effort to reduce how often a warning would be seen.
  2. Long-term (untargeted) (IGN-14691): Have the back-end determine when the warning indicator should be used.
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