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Understand Kubernetes memory metrics without firing false OOM alerts

Separate page cache, working set, RSS, limits, and OOMKilled events so your Prometheus dashboards and alerts help instead of panic.

A practical guide to diagnosing Kubernetes container memory with Prometheus and Grafana without confusing usage, working set, RSS, or reclaimable page cache.

Created: April 26, 2026

Published: April 26, 2026

Estimated time40 min

LevelIntermediate

Before you startPrometheus scraping kubelet/cAdvisor metrics

PlatformsLinux / Docker

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Docker

A reproducible lab flow with local Prometheus to test queries before moving them into a cluster.

Docker or ComposeTest PrometheusContainer metrics exposed in the environment

Start a test Prometheus stack

docker compose up -d prometheus grafana

Run an instant query

curl -G 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/query' --data-urlencode 'query=container_memory_working_set_bytes'

Also available inEntender las métricas de memoria de Kubernetes sin disparar falsas alertas de OOM

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