Quickly find how hugepages are configured, why they matter, and how to read the kernel state. 28.11.2025 | reading time: 2 min HugePages can boost performance for large-memory workloads; this short guide shows how to inspect the kernel state so the administrator knows what is allocated and how Transparent HugePages behave. Quick inspection example Here is a concise session that shows the typical checks; run the commands as root or with sudo to read kernel interfaces: ```bash grep -i huge /proc/meminfo # Output HugePages_Total: 512 HugePages_Free: 500 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB cat /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages # Output 512 sysctl vm.nr_hugepages # Output vm.nr_hugepages = 512 mount | grep hugetlb # Output hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime) cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled # Output always [madvise] never ``` What to check next After the quick checks, inspect per-size and per-node settings, for example list all size directories under /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages and read per-node files under /sys/devices/system/node/node*/hugepages to see NUMA distribution; also watch the hugetlbfs mount options, kernel boot settings that reserve pages early, and Transparent HugePages defrag settings when low-latency is required. Tools that help interpret results Use simple utilities to correlate the kernel view with processes and NUMA: check which processes use hugepages via /proc/<pid>/smaps or `pmap`, profile TLB behavior with `perf`, and allocate or manage persistent pages with the libhugetlbfs helpers when testing application behavior. Wrap-up and next steps You have concrete commands to read HugePages counts, sizes, hugetlbfs mounts and THP state; next, practice adjusting vm.nr_hugepages, reserving pages for NUMA nodes, and testing application performance under both reserved and transparent modes; learn more and prepare for certification such as CompTIA Linux+ or LPIC-1 with intensive exam preparation at bitsandbytes.academy. Join Bits & Bytes Academy First class LINUX exam preparation. setup storage virtualization processes troubleshooting
