A method including: in a network element that includes one or more hardware memory resources of fixed storage capacity for storing data used to configure a plurality of networking features of the network element and a utilization management process running on the network element, the utilization management process performing operations including: obtaining a plurality of entries of the one or more hardware memory resources representing utilization of the one or more hardware memory resources by network traffic passing through the network element; sorting the plurality of entries of the one or more hardware memory resources by statistics associated with the network traffic passing through the network element to produce sorted entries; and sending the extracted to a network management application for display is disclosed. An apparatus and one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media to execute the method are also provided.