DotNet Core 2.1 hoarding memory in Linux
The problem was the connection to RabbitMQ. Because we were using sort lived channels, the "auto-reconnect" feature of the RabbitMQ.Client was keeping a lot of state about dead channels. We switched off this configuration, since we do not need the "perks" of the "auto-reconnect" feature, and everything start working normally. It was a pain, but we basically had to setup a Windows deploy and do the usual memory analysis process with Windows tools (Jetbrains dotMemory in this case). Using lldb is not productive at all.
Disclaimer: I am no .NET Wizard.
But you should do two things to go with Kubernetes best practices:
Define sensible resource limits for your app. If the app does not need more than 200MB memory define a resource limit to prevent the app from consuming all available host memory. But be aware that the Unix API to get available memory is not capable of processing the cgroup the process has and always outputs the host memory no matter what your cgroup says.
Tell your app what this resource limit is. It seems like your app does not "feel the need" to free memory as there is plenty. Almost all applications, and frameworks as well, have a switch to define the maximum memory to be consumed. Tell your app this limit, and it will "see" memory pressure and perform a full GC (what I guess could be the problem here)