I'm having a problem and am hoping someone else has a suggestion to offer. We're running Exchange 2003 SP2 on Windows 2003 server, and have monitoring set up for the Virtual Memory Threshold. I have it set to warn when there is less than 15% available, and go critical when there is less than 10% available, after 10 minutes. We've been getting the warning and critical emails for the past couple of days now. The strange thing is, there are no errors or warnings in the event logs to give additional information. The pagefile is only at 26% utilization (1.66 GB) and we've got 961MB of RAM free. I have followed the recommendations in the Microsoft knowledgebase articles to gather information from the performance monitor counters of MSExchangeIS, as shown here: VM Largest Block Size : 1007616000 VM Total 16 MB free blocks: 11 VM Total Free Blocks: 291 VM Total Large Free Block Bytes: 1312702464 So it's warning me we're low on virtual memory, but there is no evidence that this is true, and I can't find the source of the problem. Any suggestions?

Just a bump and an update: The monitor is reporting current available Virtual Memory at 2% now, which is starting to worry me, but I can't think of any work arounds. No one has any suggestions at all?

try turning your virtual memory up to about 4000mb

Have you tried running ExBPA to see if it detects any configuration issues? You can get the latest version from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=dbab201f-4bee-4943-ac22-e2ddbd258df3. Hope this helps.

The virtual memory is set to use 4092 MB. Its only using about 1.85 GB now, but its set for more. I've run both the troubleshooting tool and Best Practices tool, and neither come up with an issue. Everything checks out as clean. These messages started appearing on December 27th. The only change made since then was the re-application of SP2 for Exchange, and I enabled IMF. But even if that were the problem, wouldn't there be other errors or signs?

See above...no issues reported by ExBPA.

well, vertual memory is only used when there is no ram left on sticks, so try getting more ram, clean up your HD, remove unwanted programs, just genrally clean up, see what happens?

If you Exchange is installed on the computer has 1GB or more physical memory RAM,you need use /3GB switch in boot.ini and should modify HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold registry value set to 0x00040000. More information references these KB number How to troubleshoot virtual memory fragmentation in Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server You receive an "Out of virtual memory" error message after you enable the Envelope Journaling feature in Exchange Server 2003 SP1 How to gather data to troubleshoot Exchange virtual memory issues

Both of those have been set since Exchange was installed in 2005. All knowledge base recommendations relating to virtual memory have been checked and verified as correct. I tried restarting the system attendant service, hoping it was just messing up, but after 6 or 7 hours, it was back to reporting current available virtual memory as 1% available. Does anyone know exactly what is being measured when it reports on "Current Available Virtual Memory"?

I have exactly this problem and have been trying to resolve for a few months. We have Exchange 2003 SP2. I have also tried everything that has been suggested above and probably more. I think this problem may be related (but I'm not totally sure and that's why i'm posting this) to running antivirus software on the same Exchange server, I have Norman Antivirus in addition to the Norman Virus Control for Exchange. (I have also heard GFI Mailessentialsproduct causes the same problem) After reading numerous articles posted on the Norman Forum's and Microsoft,there are a number of recommendations made including removing thevirus scanning from theExchange directories as well as modfiying theWindows registry to increase the API scanning. But neither of these seem to workonour Exchange server. I think the issues is related to memory leaks(relating to Antivirus Sofware)and probably overloadingof the Server in general. We are using an IBM server with 2GB ram and RAID 5so would be interested to know the type of Server enviorment youhave to see if their isarelationship with specific hardware setup.

Good to know I'm not the only one with this problem! Our server is a Dell PowerEdge 2850. We're running Windows Server 2003 with SP1. Its a single processor Xeon (3.6 GHz), 2 GB RAM, and both a RAID 1 set and RAID 5 set. The transaction logs and system files are on the RAID1, while the databases are on RAID 5. We're currently only serving 170 mailboxes and a small public folder structure. We only have Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange5.0 on this machine. There is no other antivirus software currently installed on it. We will be upgrading our server to 4 GB of physical RAM in a couple of months, which might give some more information, but because of budget restrictions we can't speed that purchase up. The only option I can think of, was I don't remember disabling the Symantec Mail Security services before I re-applied SP2 for Exchange. This is something that I remember reading as a recommendation. Is that something that may have happened in your environment as well? Updating Exchange to SP2 while antivirus software was running?

Yes interesting you do have a mail scanner type application and you do have RAID. Yes it would be interesting to see if disabling Symantec Mail security makes a difference. My boss won't let me disable anything until I go on my Exchange course early next month! I don't know if you have read the following MS article: 835408 The Microsoft Information Store service uses increasing amounts of Virtual memory and eventually stops. I thought this would be the answer but was another false dawn, but could be worth checking in your enviroment as my estate is even smaller than yours - approx 90 users but increasing steadily. When I checked, We only had 46 messages open in all our users mailboxes so I can' see how it can cause this problem. I am not certain adding more memory will resolve the problem but I have not tried it! This other MS Article (Even bigger!) 325044 How to troubleshoot virtual memory fragmentation in Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server contains a very sound and technical explaination of why this problem happens (also states adding more memory won't make a difference). I've tried just about everything on there except the following suggestion about how to reduce the msExchESEParamMaxOpenTables but even the opening statement on this change adds it does not think it will reduce virtual memory. I have never used the ADSI edit tool so have decided to steer clear of this option for now. I am trying to look at the problem outside Exchange at the moment as I have previously set all the Exchange Monitors for Virtual memory, so for now to keep a handle on this issue, from our other server I am using performance Manager (PERFMON) to monitor the Exchange Server's following counter VM Total 16mb Free Blocks (found in performance object EXCHANGEIS). What you will notice is that after the Server has been rebooted this size will be approx 16mb but after a few days use (or in your case probably less), it starts to decrease steadily, in our enviroment after two weeks, its down to about 4mb and this is when the virtual memory errors start ocurring. Within a few days of this I need to reboot the Server to get the VM Largest block size back to full health. This gives me a daily visual representation of the problem live and I also have counters on memory page writes \ reads and faults and noticed that during the day the page faults /sec counter take a big hit indicating something but I just don't know what the Page faults mean. I also noticed that the Available Mbytes is reduced to between 70-80% when the 9582 Error occurs, as before it is at a 100%. Do you run any kind of PDF 3rd party application, we use a program call PDFING to convert incoming text files to PDF format.

Sorry did not answer your last question: The only option I can think of, was I don't remember disabling the Symantec Mail Security services before I re-applied SP2 for Exchange. This is something that I remember reading as a recommendation. Is that something that may have happened in your environment as well? Updating Exchange to SP2 while antivirus software was running? I also don't recall disabling Norman Antivirus or Norman Exchange software when installing SP2 for Exchange.However I know we were experiencing this Virtual memory problem (but less severe) before SP2 was installed. I don't have IMF set to run as my Boss is worried about impact on geniune incoming emails being stopped and won't let me add this option until after i've been on a course and can find how to restore any good emails that get quarantined. .

Hmmmm...I'm not too sure we're having the same problem anymore. Are you receiving errors in your event log regarding this virtual memory issue? You mentioned that your performance monitor counters were confirming that you are low on virtual memory, but in our case, the only indication of a problem is the Exchange monitoring tool. All performance counters are displaying that they are well within the normal range, and we have absolutely no errors in our event logs relating to this. It gets even more odd, as I came in this morning to check what the Exchange monitor was displaying, it says "current available virtual memory (percent)" is 207. Next time I get the email of it passing the error threshold I'll check it again. We unfortunatly can't turn off our Mail Security either, so thats not really an option.

Yes you may be right, if you are not getting the 9582 error message in your event viewer then your problem is likely to be a different type of virtual memory problem. Interestingly enough, your original stats on the performance counters are similar to mine, We have a 3.06Ghz Xeon processor Server with 2GB ram. Based on your original posting stats, mine are: The pagefile is at 1.70 GBbut we've got only 405MB of physical RAM free -I;ve taken this from Task Manager so assuming you have done similar.VM Largest Block Size : 978059264VM Total 16 MB free blocks:8 (You will notice this will go down if you are experiencing the same problem aswe have)VM Total Free Blocks:286 VM Total Large Free Block Bytes:1121931264 Above Stats from 2003 Performance Counter I am not sure where you got the current available virtual memory (percent)" is 207 , appreicate if you cantell me as I can check mine and report this back but obviously this can wait until the next time you check.

When I mention the Exchange monitoring, and the "current available virtual memory (percent)" i'm refering to the monitoring that can be enabled in Exchange System Manager (ESM). Mine is set up in an MMC console, but it should be similar to this: Name of Group (Exchange) > Server > Server name (Sw3005 in my case) If you right click on your server here, and select properties, theres a new window with a whole bunch of tabs. On the monitoring tab, you can enable monitoring on pre-specified counters. The counter I'm monitoring is Virtual memory threshold. I have this set to give a warning at 10% and a critical message at 5%. Notifications for these monitors can be set under the Tools folder in ESM: Tools > Monitoring and Status > Notifications. From here I've got them set to email me at warning and critical status'. Under Tools > Monitoring and Status > Status, it will display the counters on a per server basis. If you open it up here, and open the Virtual Memory Threshold counter, at the bottom of the window it displays "Current Available Virtual Memory (percent)" and gives a value. Around 9am mine dropped to 0%, but now its back up to 208% (4 hours later). Here are my current perfmon counters: VM Largest Block Size : 1007747072VM Total 16 MB free blocks: 10 (I have never seen this lower than 10) VM Total Free Blocks: 294 VM Total Large Free Block Bytes: 1274363904 The strange thing is, these aren't very much higher than my original post, when the threshold was at 7% available virtual memory. This Virtual Memory Threshold is the only indication that I've got a problem, as everything else seems normal, including performance of the server. I'm interested to find out what your threshold is currently saying. And in answer to your earlier question, we're not running any PDF applications on this server. The only 2 programs installed on this server are Exchange, and Symantec Mail Security.

Yes sorry, I missed that in the properties and I was looking in the Monitoring tools, thanks for the instructions. My Current Available Virtual Memory (percent) is 54%and pretty certain is remains stable around this but I will keep checking this. Best of luck with your problem as it now seems certain we have different types of virtual memory issues.