This gauge reports the highest total kernel memory observed during the sampled interval on the fabric-interconnect switch's onboard OS, as recorded in the currently sampled CPU-load and memory-usage statistics for the fabric-interconnect switch's onboard OS. An administrator calculating what fraction of kernel memory is in use divides kernelMemFree by this kernelMemTotalMax figure rather than relying on either number alone. For example, comparing this kernelMemTotalMax figure against kernelMemFree over time tells an operator whether the switch's overall kernel memory pool itself changed (for instance after a firmware upgrade) rather than just usage within it.