Memory assignment and allocation

In some cases, the amount of memory you assign to a partition is not the same as the amount of memory that is actually allocated by the system.

At boot time, some system processes, such as kdump and the Run-Time Abstraction Service (RTAS), require memory to run. That memory is drawn from the same memory pool as the resources you assigned to your partitions. As a result, the real memory allocated by your system is less than what you assigned.

You can release the memory used by kdump if your memory needs are higher than your problem determination needs, but in most cases, the difference between assigned memory and allocated memory is not enough for users to notice.