Re: SBS 2003 Premium R2 server becomes more unstable, page file gr

Les,

I agree, the addition of WSUS was probably a little premature, but other
articles that I read seemed to suggest that the R2 technologies might help
with system stability. However, the hotfixes and patches were suggestions
that you, Dave, and others have made as to finding and patching the memory
leak. Making sure that all updates are applied is usually the first line of
defense in any OS troubleshooting procedure.

I went away for lunch, and just came back. Exchange kicked two of us off,
and then when we took a look at the server, it appears as though the PF
Useage decreased in size to 8.97GB. At the same time, all communications
with Exchange were restored. Perhaps the server is doing a little better job
of managing itself.

As for the drive names, the server hardware was used previous to us having
it. At that time when we formatted the drives and set up raid, it
automatically assigned drives E (System Partion) and F to the raid arrays
that we had in the box.

Any idea why this would do this or where to go from here?

Seth

"Les Connor [SBS MVP]" wrote:

I read that. You're making a lot of changes all at once, and on a box that's
struggling. I'm not sure that's the best approach ;-/.

Where's your c:\ drive? I'm kind of wondering why e:\ is the system drive -
perhaps there's more to be discovered.

--
Les Connor [SBS MVP]


"ipadl" <ipadl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:545AC080-883D-4C89-9857-3A6783DCFA30@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Les,

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to set the PF to be system managed this
evening and see what I find. Please read the last response to Dave, as it
gives more info and insight into what happened after some patches,
hotfixes,
and downloads from last night. Thanks,

Seth

"Les Connor [SBS MVP]" wrote:

Switch to a system managed pagefile, as a suggestion.

--
Les Connor [SBS MVP]


"ipadl" <ipadl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A681F3C6-67DE-4541-838F-DF6C8AE583B9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dave,

I'm hoping that this is true and that as we've applied hotfixes that
we've
created a stable environment. At this point, we have the page file set
up
as
follows:

4 GB RAM
Drive E (System Partition, Raid 1): 3 GB PF (min and max)
Drive F (File Partition, Raid 5): 3 GB PF (min and max)

The total page file size that we have set is 6GB. Under the PF Useage
in
the Task Manager, we see the 9.29 GB (current value). This should be
according to MS specs and your suggestion of the PF being 1.5x the RAM
,
correct? The server hasn't crashed yet, but it has in the past. It's
been
up currently for 2 days and 15 hours. Strangely enough (and possible
unrelated), we've also heard on two occaisions the fans kick up to a
higher
rate when the server has gone down. This usually stays high for
several
minutes and then drops down to a lower rate again.

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate your suggestions. Where
should
we
go from here?

Seth

"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" wrote:

Pure speculation here - disregarding that VM Size column in Task
Manager,
the rest of your memory usage info seems consistent with a normally
functioning SBS. I just caught from your previous post that you have
the
page file configured to 10 GB - is that right? My speculation would
be
that
because the system has that size of page file available, it's just
going
ahead and using it. Kind of like a system that would be fine with 2
GB
of
RAM, but when you up it to 4 GB, it uses more for no other reason than
that
it's there to be used.

I wonder what would happen if you set the page file to a fixed size of
1.5
times RAM and rebooted. That would be a standard configuration, and
my
guess is that the system would then just start using a more typical
amount
of page file.

I'd give that a try - configure a page file to have a fixed size equal
to
1.5 times the amount of physical RAM in the server. Reboot to apply
that
setting, and see what happens. If the system does not start reporting
virtual memory or similar errors, I'd see if the instability is
remedied,
and if not, I'd troubleshoot it differently, looking for a different
cause.


"ipadl" <ipadl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46D9D4B1-DB4E-4ABF-9F43-717BC2E403A8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dave,

Thanks for the reply. In the task manager, the Mem Useage doesn't
account
for much. The VM Size is what seems to be getting large (Mem Useage
vs.
VM
Size included below)! I didn't note the Commit Charge at the time
that
I
had
taken that data and I deleted my screen shot after building the
spread***,
but right now we're looking at a PF size of 9.34 GB with a Commit
Charge
of
9571M / 9749M.

I spoke to Microsoft again today about the hotfixes that you
suggested,
and
unlike before, they had a replacement for the hotfix from article
916089.
The new article is 927891. It didn't look like it was really all
that
similar and I won't apply it until this evening, but this is what
Microsoft
said was the fix.

Any other thoughts? The wuauserv is still part of the svchost which
seems
to be rather large on the VM size. Could this still be the culprit
to
this
memory leak? I'll see if the server crashes today. When the PF
gets
up
around 9.4 GB it gets really unstable.

Image Name Mem Usage (K) VM Size (K)
store.exe 609,584 623,068
svchost.exe 62,188 605,276
wspsrv.exe 27,120 596,512
w3wp.exe 34,508 591,664
lsass.exe 41,296 589,908
inetinfo.exe 33,392 584,112
mad.exe 21,856 570,804
winlogon.exe 3,904 567,600
services.exe 97,904 560,292
ntfrs.exe 1,852 560,028
sqlservr.exe 547,040 558,156
sqlagent.EXE 3,100 552,880
dfssvc.exe 4,744 552,792
crss.exe 3,096 550,936
tbsrvc.exe 2,764 550,496
sqlservr.exe 253,864 262,940
w3wp.exe 76,612 77,544
sqlservr.exe 39,820 50,524
mmc.exe 28,800 26,864
hpsmhd.exe 16,740 15,736
explorer.exe 20,052 13,664
wmiprvse.exe 14,932 13,052
exmgmt.exe 10,420 11,076
dns.exe 6,824 10,760
mspdmin.exe 13,836 10,252
explorer.exe 14,248 10,216
mssearch.exe 1,368 9,728
OWSTIMER.EXE 10,584 8,564
hpsmhd.exe 10,732 8,332
svchost.exe 8,456 8,272
ismserv.exe 7,096 7,364
wins.exe 6,192 7,340
wmiprvse.exe 9,884 6,676
winlogon.exe 2,600 5,864
svchost.exe 4,912 5,312
svchost.exe 6,444 4,788
spoolsv.exe 5,088 4,500
W3Prefch.exe 5,968 3,744
llssrv.exe 5,288 3,648
dmadmin.exe 4,512 3,544
svchost.exe 4,608 3,448
svchost.exe 3,864 3,376
msdtc.exe 4,268 2,208
sqlmangr.exe 5,136 2,096
sqlmangr.exe 5,220 2,084
smhstart.exe 3,120 2,040
crss.exe 4,560 1,924
isastg.exe 3,812 1,776
sbscrexe.exe 4,336 1,572
taskmgr.exe 4,356 1,560
tcpsvcs.exe 2,128 1,440
svchost.exe 3,596 1,424
sqlwriter.exe 3,604 1,268


"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" wrote:

So at the time you got the information below, the system was
showing 9
GB
PF
Usage? Those figures only add up to a little under 2 GB for memory
usage,
and even peak is only a little over 2. What figures are you
showing
under
Commit Charge on the Performance tab?


"ipadl" <ipadl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:B677EFD4-B9E5-4DB3-B280-729D1C338FAD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Les et al,

We've applied those patches and it seems as though the page file
is
continuing to do it's old thing. It is growing to approximately
9
GB
(out
of
10GB that we have set aside) and sometimes growing larger,
choking
other
applications. SQL has been limited to 512KB. Are there any
other
ideas
as
to how to diagnose this problem? I'm going to try to insert a
spread***
into this post with a bunch of Processes that my help us find a
problem.
If
there is a better way to do this, let me know. Thanks in advance
for
your
help.

Image Name PID Username Session ID CPU Mem Usage (K) Peak Mem
Usage
(K)
Mem
Delta (K) VM Size (K) Paged Pool (K)
store.exe 3620 SYSTEM 0 00 609,584 627,276 0 623,068 122
svchost.exe 928 SYSTEM 0 00 62,188 116,240 0 605,276 131
wspsrv.exe 5428 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 27,120 39,512 0 596,512 206
w3wp.exe 7964 SYSTEM 0 00 34,508 34,896 0 591,664 74
lsass.exe 476 SYSTEM 0 00 41,296 43,724 0 589,908 181
inetinfo.exe 1656 SYSTEM 0 00 33,392 33,440 0 584,112 144
mad.exe 3072 SYSTEM 0 00 21,856 24,320 0 570,804 89
winlogon.exe 416 SYSTEM 0 00 3,904 23,880 0 567,600 59
services.exe 464 SYSTEM 0 00 97,904 97,904 0 560,292 127
ntfrs.exe 2312 SYSTEM 0 00 1,852 8,372 0 560,028 31
sqlservr.exe 1844 SYSTEM 0 00 547,040 547,256 0 558,156 54
sqlagent.EXE 2580 SYSTEM 0 00 3,100 6,100 0 552,880 34
dfssvc.exe 1480 SYSTEM 0 00 4,744 4,844 0 552,792 33
crss.exe 6796 SYSTEM 0 00 3,096 3,124 0 550,936 29
tbsrvc.exe 2840 SYSTEM 0 00 2,764 3,036 0 550,496 24
sqlservr.exe 1916 SYSTEM 0 00 253,864 253,992 0 262,940 49
w3wp.exe 1336 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 76,612 76,744 0 77,544 93
sqlservr.exe 1944 SYSTEM 0 00 39,820 39,836 0 50,524 40
mmc.exe 6616 Nomadserv 0 00 28,800 28,800 0 26,864 109
hpsmhd.exe 3800 SYSTEM 0 00 16,740 16,748 0 15,736 44
explorer.exe 7708 Nomadserv 0 00 20,052 20,420 0 13,664 77
wmiprvse.exe 4944 SYSTEM 0 00 14,932 15,100 0 13,052 58
exmgmt.exe 2952 SYSTEM 0 00 10,420 11,176 0 11,076 44
dns.exe 1500 SYSTEM 0 00 6,824 6,836 0 10,760 40
mspdmin.exe 3456 SYSTEM 0 00 13,836 13,976 0 10,252 64
explorer.exe 436 Nomadserv 0 00 14,248 14,324 0 10,216 65
mssearch.exe 3100 SYSTEM 0 00 1,368 9,056 0 9,728 45
OWSTIMER.EXE 2564 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 10,584 10,628 0 8,564 43
hpsmhd.exe 3444 SYSTEM 0 00 10,732 10,740 0 8,332 36
svchost.exe 3180 SYSTEM 0 00 8,456 9,448 0 8,272 27
ismserv.exe 1732 SYSTEM 0 00 7,096 7,104 0 7,364 47
wins.exe 2868 SYSTEM 0 00 6,192 6,208 0 7,340 30
wmiprvse.exe 4748 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 9,884 12,244 0 6,676 40
winlogon.exe 6000 SYSTEM 0 00 2,600 8,348 0 5,864 47
svchost.exe 864 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 4,912 4,932 0 5,312 35
svchost.exe 900 LOCAL SERVICE 0 00 6,444 6,460 0 4,788 34
spoolsv.exe 1272 SYSTEM 0 00 5,088 5,096 0 4,500 24
W3Prefch.exe 5464 SYSTEM 0 00 5,968 5,980 0 3,744 43
llssrv.exe 1764 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 5,288 6,220 0 3,648 31
dmadmin.exe 5856 SYSTEM 0 00 4,512 4,520 0 3,544 25
svchost.exe 5792 SYSTEM 0 00 4,608 4,612 0 3,448 33
svchost.exe 2824 SYSTEM 0 00 3,864 3,920 0 3,376 31
msdtc.exe 1300 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 4,268 4,296 0 2,208 22
sqlmangr.exe 3724 Nomadserv 0 00 5,136 6,636 0 2,096 39
sqlmangr.exe 7792 Nomadserv 0 00 5,220 6,676 0 2,084 39
smhstart.exe 2776 SYSTEM 0 00 3,120 3,128 0 2,040 17
crss.exe 392 SYSTEM 0 00 4,560 4,616 0 1,924 68
isastg.exe 1696 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 3,812 3,824 0 1,776 30
sbscrexe.exe 2424 SYSTEM 0 00 4,336 4,560 0 1,572 31
taskmgr.exe 3576 Nomadserv 0 00 4,356 4,356 0 1,560 33
tcpsvcs.exe 2480 SYSTEM 0 00 2,128 2,136 0 1,440 17
svchost.exe 804 NETWORK SERVICE 0 00 3,596 3,608 0 1,424 24
.

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