Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mmst ta

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jesse Pastrano
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Jesse Pastrano

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Hi there,

we are facing the following problem:

On our Windows Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition File server we are forced to
reboot due to low Paged Physical Kernel Memory. Once we reach around 350,000
K, the server stops responding to client requests and we can not access it
from the console.

(Eventid 2020: The server was unable to allocate from the system paged
pool because the pool was empty.)

This is a Fileserver with approx 2 TB of data containing AutoCAD files and
user home directories.

All volumes use Volume Shadow Copies for Folders to give our users
the Previous Versions possibility. The target for these Shadow Copies
is another Volume from the source Volume.

During the day we have between 2000 and 2500 open files at one time and 250
server sessions.

Also noted from perf mon, the Current Disk Queue Length can max around 94
and avg about 6.

We already implemented the fix mentioned in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312362/en-us
(PoolUsageMaximum is already down to 40)
and also
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317249

To clear some paged memory it helps to create a shadow copy manually,
but this only helps for an hour.

The source and target volumes for the Shadow Copies have very low
fragmentation.

Any help or ideas how to solve this would be very appreciated.

Thanks and kind regards,
 
Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mmst ta

>Hi there,
>
>we are facing the following problem:
>
>On our Windows Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition File server we are forced to
>reboot due to low Paged Physical Kernel Memory. Once we reach around 350,000
>K, the server stops responding to client requests and we can not access it
>from the console.
>
>(Eventid 2020: The server was unable to allocate from the system paged
>pool because the pool was empty.)
>
>This is a Fileserver with approx 2 TB of data containing AutoCAD files and
>user home directories.
>
>All volumes use Volume Shadow Copies for Folders to give our users
>the Previous Versions possibility. The target for these Shadow Copies
>is another Volume from the source Volume.
>
>During the day we have between 2000 and 2500 open files at one time and 250
>server sessions.
>
>Also noted from perf mon, the Current Disk Queue Length can max around 94
>and avg about 6.
>
>We already implemented the fix mentioned in
>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312362/en-us
>(PoolUsageMaximum is already down to 40)
>and also
>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317249
>
>To clear some paged memory it helps to create a shadow copy manually,
>but this only helps for an hour.
>
>The source and target volumes for the Shadow Copies have very low
>fragmentation.
>
>Any help or ideas how to solve this would be very appreciated.
>
>Thanks and kind regards,

Do you have the VSS roll-up installed?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940349

- Thee Chicago Wolf
 
Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mmstta

Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mmstta

On Mar 19, 11:49 am, Thee Chicago Wolf <.@.> wrote:
> >Hi there,
>
> >we are facing the following problem:
>
> >On our Windows Server 2003 SP2 Standard Edition File server we are forced to
> >reboot due to low Paged Physical Kernel Memory.  Once we reach around 350,000
> >K, the server stops responding to client requests and we can not access it
> >from the console.
>
> >(Eventid 2020: The server was unable to allocate from the system paged
> >pool because the pool was empty.)
>
> >This is a Fileserver with approx 2 TB of data containing AutoCAD files and
> >user home directories.
>
> >All volumes use Volume Shadow Copies for Folders to give our users
> >the Previous Versions possibility. The target for these Shadow Copies
> >is another Volume from the source Volume.
>
> >During the day we have between 2000 and 2500 open files at one time and 250
> >server sessions.
>
> >Also noted from perf mon, the Current Disk Queue Length can max around 94
> >and avg about 6.
>
> >We already implemented the fix mentioned in
> >http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312362/en-us
> >(PoolUsageMaximum is already down to 40)
> >and also
> >http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317249
>
> >To clear some paged memory it helps to create a shadow copy manually,
> >but this only helps for an hour.
>
> >The source and target volumes for the Shadow Copies have very low
> >fragmentation.
>
> >Any help or ideas how to solve this would be very appreciated.
>
> >Thanks and kind regards,
>
> Do you have the VSS roll-up installed?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940349
>
> - Thee Chicago Wolf- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks,
I will install the VSS roll-up. I also have to correct my previous
statement. I said that running VSS manually free's up the page pool
consumption, well it used to, but in the past month running VSS
manually does not help anymore.
 
Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mmst ta

Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mmst ta

>Thanks,
>I will install the VSS roll-up. I also have to correct my previous
>statement. I said that running VSS manually free's up the page pool
>consumption, well it used to, but in the past month running VSS
>manually does not help anymore.

While I'm not 100% convinced that VSS is leaking memory in your case,
it could certainly be part of a larger memory leak somewhere else. It
would be a good idea to take a memory snapshot after applying the VSS
roll-up and checking it periodically or via some tool to monitor the
running processes. There have been other memory leak fixes since SP2
was released so perhaps there are other options once you can narrow
down the problem.

- Thee Chicago Wolf
 
Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mms

Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mms

Thanks,
another interesting thing is that it sometimes cleans up itself. For
example the Paged Physical Memory was at 330K most of the day until the late
afternoon (3ish)it went to 220K. So I'm not sure if it's a memory leak or
busy server and memory manager can't keep up? We also have ArcServe Backup
and Symantec AV running with a fairly recent version for both...I once
thought it may be a filter driver leak. I also think using SATA drives for
primary storage is a bottle neck; it seems when the disk current queue goes
up, so does the MMST memory consumption.

"Thee Chicago Wolf" wrote:

> >Thanks,
> >I will install the VSS roll-up. I also have to correct my previous
> >statement. I said that running VSS manually free's up the page pool
> >consumption, well it used to, but in the past month running VSS
> >manually does not help anymore.
>
> While I'm not 100% convinced that VSS is leaking memory in your case,
> it could certainly be part of a larger memory leak somewhere else. It
> would be a good idea to take a memory snapshot after applying the VSS
> roll-up and checking it periodically or via some tool to monitor the
> running processes. There have been other memory leak fixes since SP2
> was released so perhaps there are other options once you can narrow
> down the problem.
>
> - Thee Chicago Wolf
>
 
Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mms

Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mms

I installed the VSS rollup update over the weekend and applied all critical
updates and still have the same issue...any other items that may cause this?

thanks!

"Jesse Pastrano" wrote:

> Thanks,
> another interesting thing is that it sometimes cleans up itself. For
> example the Paged Physical Memory was at 330K most of the day until the late
> afternoon (3ish)it went to 220K. So I'm not sure if it's a memory leak or
> busy server and memory manager can't keep up? We also have ArcServe Backup
> and Symantec AV running with a fairly recent version for both...I once
> thought it may be a filter driver leak. I also think using SATA drives for
> primary storage is a bottle neck; it seems when the disk current queue goes
> up, so does the MMST memory consumption.
>
> "Thee Chicago Wolf" wrote:
>
> > >Thanks,
> > >I will install the VSS roll-up. I also have to correct my previous
> > >statement. I said that running VSS manually free's up the page pool
> > >consumption, well it used to, but in the past month running VSS
> > >manually does not help anymore.
> >
> > While I'm not 100% convinced that VSS is leaking memory in your case,
> > it could certainly be part of a larger memory leak somewhere else. It
> > would be a good idea to take a memory snapshot after applying the VSS
> > roll-up and checking it periodically or via some tool to monitor the
> > running processes. There have been other memory leak fixes since SP2
> > was released so perhaps there are other options once you can narrow
> > down the problem.
> >
> > - Thee Chicago Wolf
> >
 
Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mms

Re: Windows Server 2003, VSS and Paged pool bytes exhausted by mms

There are known issues Symantec AV causing Event ID - 2020. Upgrading from
version 8 to 11 resolved the issue for us.

Good Luck!


"Jesse Pastrano" wrote:

> I installed the VSS rollup update over the weekend and applied all critical
> updates and still have the same issue...any other items that may cause this?
>
> thanks!
>
> "Jesse Pastrano" wrote:
>
> > Thanks,
> > another interesting thing is that it sometimes cleans up itself. For
> > example the Paged Physical Memory was at 330K most of the day until the late
> > afternoon (3ish)it went to 220K. So I'm not sure if it's a memory leak or
> > busy server and memory manager can't keep up? We also have ArcServe Backup
> > and Symantec AV running with a fairly recent version for both...I once
> > thought it may be a filter driver leak. I also think using SATA drives for
> > primary storage is a bottle neck; it seems when the disk current queue goes
> > up, so does the MMST memory consumption.
> >
> > "Thee Chicago Wolf" wrote:
> >
> > > >Thanks,
> > > >I will install the VSS roll-up. I also have to correct my previous
> > > >statement. I said that running VSS manually free's up the page pool
> > > >consumption, well it used to, but in the past month running VSS
> > > >manually does not help anymore.
> > >
> > > While I'm not 100% convinced that VSS is leaking memory in your case,
> > > it could certainly be part of a larger memory leak somewhere else. It
> > > would be a good idea to take a memory snapshot after applying the VSS
> > > roll-up and checking it periodically or via some tool to monitor the
> > > running processes. There have been other memory leak fixes since SP2
> > > was released so perhaps there are other options once you can narrow
> > > down the problem.
> > >
> > > - Thee Chicago Wolf
> > >
 
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