---
title: High RSS memory usage due to MADV settings
description: In versions of Packetbeat prior to 7.10.2, the go runtime defaults to MADV_FREE by default. In some cases, this can lead to high RSS memory usage while...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/beats/packetbeat/madvdontneed-rss
products:
  - Beats
  - Packetbeat
applies_to:
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
---

# High RSS memory usage due to MADV settings
In versions of Packetbeat prior to 7.10.2, the go runtime defaults to `MADV_FREE` by default. In some cases, this can lead to high RSS memory usage while the kernel waits to reclaim any pages assigned to Packetbeat. On versions prior to 7.10.2, set the `GODEBUG="madvdontneed=1"` environment variable if you run into RSS usage issues.