# PDPD process stops responding when memory usage exceeds 4GB on a Security Gateway

**Product**: Identity Awareness  
**Version**: R81.20, R82, R82.10  
**OS**: Gaia  
**Last Modified**: 2026-07-23

## Symptoms

- Users cannot authenticate through the Identity Awareness blade.
- Identity-based rules do not match the traffic.
- On the Security Gateway CLI, `pdp` commands return:
  
  `daemon did not respond or not running`
- The command `ps aux |grep pdpd` shows the PDPD process uses more than 4GB of memory (VSZ column).
- The last line in `$FWDIR/log/pdpd.elg` shows:
  
  `Cannot allocate memory`
- A forced restart of the PDPD process with the command `kill -9 $(pidof pdpd)` resolves the issue for a short time only.

## Solution

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#### NOTE

This solution has been verified for the specific scenario, described by the combination of Product, Version and Symptoms. It may not work in other scenarios.

## Article Properties

**Access Level**: Advanced  
**Status**: Approved by TAC  
**Date Created**: 2025-12-08  
**Last Modified**: 2026-07-23