---
title: Manage the memory used by Pixie
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/kubernetes-pixie/auto-telemetry-pixie/advanced-configuration/manage-pixie-memory
---

You can configure the amount of memory Pixie uses. During the installation, use Helm to set the memory requests and limits, or to reduce the amount of memory Pixie uses for short-term data storage.

## How does Pixie use memory? [#memory-usage]

The primary focus of the [open source Pixie project](https://github.com/pixie-io/pixie) is to build a real-time debugging platform. Pixie [isn't intended to be a long-term durable storage solution](https://docs.px.dev/about-pixie/faq/#data-collection-how-much-data-does-pixie-store) and is best used in conjunction with New Relic. The New Relic integration queries Pixie every few minutes and persists a subset of Pixie's telemetry data in New Relic.

When you install the New Relic Pixie integration, a [`vizier-pem` agent](https://docs.px.dev/reference/architecture/#vizier) is deployed to each node in your cluster via a DaemonSet. The `vizier-pem` agents use memory for two main purposes:

-   Collecting telemetry data: tracing application traffic or CPU profiles, amongst others. Those values must be stored in memory somewhere, as they're processed.
-   Short-term storage of telemetry data: to power troubleshooting via the [Live debugging with Pixie tab](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/kubernetes-pixie/auto-telemetry-pixie/understand-use-data/live-debugging-with-pixie) and as a temporary storage location for a subset of the telemetry data before it's stored in New Relic.

By default, `vizier-pem` pods have a `2Gi` memory limit, and a `2Gi` memory request. They set aside 60% of their allocated memory for short-term data storage, leaving the other 40% for the data collection.

### Why does Pixie's memory use increase after installation? [#memory-increase]

After installing Pixie, memory usage of the `vizier-pem` pods increases as they begin storing telemetry data. Once you reach `vizier-pem`'s memory limit, old telemetry data is expired to make room for new data, and so memory utilization shouldn't increase any further.

## Configuring Pixie's memory usage [#configure-memory]

For most clusters, we recommend using the default `2Gi` memory configuration. However, for certain low traffic clusters, Pixie can support a minimum memory limit of `1Gi`. To accommodate application pods, we recommend that no more than 25% of the nodes' total memory be allocated to Pixie. For example, if your nodes have a total memory of `4Gi`, you'll want to configure Pixie to use a `1Gi` memory limit.

### Deploy Pixie with a particular memory limit [#set-memory-limit]

If you want to specify a different memory limit than the default `2Gi` for Pixie's `vizier-pem` agents, you can add the following configuration parameter to your Helm chart during installation. For example, for a `1Gi` memory limit, you'd use:

```sh
--set pixie-chart.pemMemoryLimit=1Gi
```

### Deploy Pixie with a particular memory request [#set-memory-request]

By default, the `vizier-pem`'s memory request is the same as the limit. If you want to specify a different memory [request](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-resources-containers/#requests-and-limits), you can add the following configuration parameter to your Helm chart during installation. For example, for a `1Gi` memory request you'd use:

```sh
--set pixie-chart.pemMemoryRequest=1Gi
```

> #### ⚠️ IMPORTANT
>
> The `vizier-pem` memory request must be less than or equal to the `vizier-pem` memory limit.

### Deploy Pixie with a particular short-term data storage [#reduce-data-storage]

By default, `vizier-pem` pods set aside 60% of their allocated memory for short-term data storage, leaving the other 40% for the collection. For the default `2Gi` memory limit, this means that a `vizier-pem` pod keeps `1.2Gi` memory for data storage.

If you want to specify a different amount for memory for short-term storage, you can add the following configuration parameter to your Helm chart during installation. For example, for `750MiB` of short-term data storage you'd use:

```sh
--set pixie-chart.dataCollectorParams.customPEMFlags.PL_TABLE_STORE_DATA_LIMIT_MB=750
```

## Troubleshooting [#troubleshooting]

For troubleshooting, see these docs:

-   [vizier-pem pods are stuck in pending state](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/kubernetes-pixie/auto-telemetry-pixie/troubleshooting/pods-stuck-pending)
-   [vizier-pem pods frequently OOMKilled](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/kubernetes-pixie/auto-telemetry-pixie/troubleshooting/pods-frequently-oomkilled)