Why doesn't the cache.aspx total cache size line up with "running total" size in logs?

Question

When I check /sitecore/admin/cache.aspx I see a total cache size value of around 334000000 (334 MB). The size is consistent with what I see when doing a quick calculation of the current run size of all the entries.

However, when I check my Sitecore logs aorund the same time, they mention a "running total" which is much larger and doesn't seem to be correlated with what is shown on the cache.aspx page at all:

Cache created: 'RequestProtection.HashCache' (max size: 3MB, running total: 4595MB)

This is a headless 10.2 SXA CM instance running on an Azure App Service.

Why the delta?

EDIT

After continuing to monitor the logs, I noticed something even more perplexing. The running total size supposedly reached ~19 GB, which is impossible given that the App Service only has 16 GB of memory. Further, if that was actually true, I would expect to see the infrastructure at max memory load, and it is nowhere near that.

Meanwhile, the cache.aspx page shows a running total of only 522 MB .

Answer 1

This question stems out of a misunderstanding between what is displayed on the cache.aspx page and what is shown as running total in the logs. Here's what Sitecore had to say about it:

Running total refers to the amount of cache sizes allocated for each cache so far. It is not the current size of the cache. It is more like a counter. The size of cache being allocated will be added to this counter when cache gets created. And would be reduced when cache is removed (less likely). This is why you may notice it growing every time it is logged. This helps us to understand the pressure on caches. You may see details of implementation in Sitecore.Caching.DefaultCacheManager::Register(ICacheInfo cache).