We have 10 Server 2008 R2 servers all exhibiting the same behaviour.
The servers run at almost 100% memory utilization. Only one has had SP1 installed, which I did this morning and after about 1 hour, the memory is maxed out. The server initially had 14GB memory, but after installing SP1 and seeing more of the
same, I decided to try installing more RAM. I put in another 8GB, and while it takes a little longer to bottom out, it still bottoms out. Perfmon is showing less than 100MB of available memory, and, as expected, performance is not good.
These servers are strictly file servers. We work with images of hard drives. They are split into 2GB chunks. An easy way to replicate the issue is to load a hard drive image and do a re-acquisition. We do this sometimes as a drive
may be acquired in the field without compression, and we will re-acquire it with compression. Once this process is started, in about 1 hour, I have about 100MB free memory.
Using RamMap, Mapped File is using 21GB of memory. When I look at the file summary, the server is caching the 2GB image files and not letting go of them in a timely manner. I am the _only_ person accessing this server, it just gets worse
when more are.
As noted above, performance is terrible, is this supposed to be normal?
Server is an IBM x3550 M2 with dual quad-core CPU, 22GB RAM, OS is on a RAID 1 mirror of two 76GB 15K SAS drives, and the server has two 14TB arrays attached. OS is Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Only the File Server Role is installed.
Thanks,
Brian

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Hi,

I would like to confirm that do you have Exchange Server installed on the servers?


If you do have Exchange Server installed, this behavior is normal. Exchange store.exe grabs as much RAM on the server as it can possibly get because
store.exe needs it to optimize performance. For more information, please refer to the following Microsoft TechNet blogs:

Why is Exchange Store.exe so RAM hungry?

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2004/08/02/206012.aspx


Understanding Exchange 2007 Memory Usage and its use of the Paging File

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2008/08/06/3406010.aspx


If you do not have Exchange Server installed, please check Task Manager and let us know what application uses the large size of memory. In addition,
you may run Process Explorer to monitor the memory usage. You may download and install it from the following link:


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx


After that, please let us know the suspect.

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No, Exchange is not installed on this server. The server is a file server only, that is the only Role currently installed.
Task Manager reports very little. The largest process in task manager appears to be related to the IBM storage agents, and is using about 90MB. Process Explorer reports a little more than Task Manager, but RamMap is really showing what is going
on.
Here is a summary of what I observed doing a re-acquisition of a hard drive image.

Process Explorer @ 11:20am/@12:15pm
Physical: 23,057,900/23,057,900
Avail: 18,471,132/86,276
Cache WS: 2,183,496/20,672,752

Taskman @ 11:20am/@12:15pm
Total: 22,517/22,517
Cached: 18,033/97
Avail: 18,038/78

RamMap @ 11:20am/@12:15pm
Mapped File Total: 18,435,040/21,649,956
Active: 11,532/21,567,912
Standby: 18,423,424/1,572

By the time we get to 12:15pm, the server has slowed dramatically, my re-acquisition is running at about 1/10 the speed before the server ran out of memory. RamMap shows what files the server is caching, and it is holding the 2GB image chunks well
after the program is finished reading them.
Interestingly, I shared out a folder with an HDD image on a Windows 7 box and started another re-acquisition. Windows 7 behaves in the exact same way, caching the image files, but it starts releasing them once the server is down to about 1GB RAM free,
instead of waiting to the bitter end.

Brian

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Hi,

Would you please send me the Process Explorer log for analyzing. For your convenience, I have created a workspace for you. You can upload the information
files to the following link. (Please choose "Send Files to Microsoft")

Workspace URL:


https://sftasia.one.microsoft.com/choosetransfer.aspx?key=cf3aebd0-25be-4183-9fe9-0cf16b67ead2

Password: $[ludL$hIDt5

Note: Due to differences in text formatting with various email clients, the workspace link above may appear to be broken. Please be sure to include all
text between '(' and ')' when typing or copying the workspace link into your browser. Meanwhile, please note that files uploaded for more than 72 hours will be deleted automatically. Please ensure to notify me timely after you have uploaded the files. Thank
you for your understanding.

Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

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Arthur
Apologies for the delay, I have sent the Process Explorer logs as requested.
At the time I saved the log, the server had less than 100MB free...
Thanks,
Brian

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Arthur,
is there any solution (or why is this happening), as we are experiencing the same behaviour on our file servers (only IIS, File Services and DFS running).
Thank you,
Vojtech

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Anyone???

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Hi,

In fact, I did not receive the Process Explorer log file. Would you please send me a new one again?

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File re-sent.

Thanks,

Brian

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Hi,

Please try to temporarily disable Kaspersky Anti-Virus to check the result.

If it does not work, please also test the issue in Clean Boot to narrow down the possible conflicting software. For the detailed steps, please
refer to the following Microsoft KB article:

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135


What’s the result in Clean Boot?

Regards,

Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

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