Reducing Exchange RAM Consumption

[bernie321]

Hi

We have a SBS 2003 Premium with 2GB Ram.

Currently we are seeing a drop in performance on our SQL Server side and File Access side, which seems to coinside with high levels of Exchange Ram usage.

Our company is primarily a paper driven office, we have a large usage of the File Server Side & SQL Server.

Although exchange is used for our Diaries, email is a 'secondary' activity. Getting to my point... our staff are typing letters all day which are generated by our SQL Server and Saved to Our file server, therefore we can afford a drop in exchange performance for a boost in SQL / File Server Performance.

We have run perfmon for the Exchange Processes:

Exchange Virtual Bytes: 1,395,744,768

Is it worth us going down the lines of reducing the ESE buffer in

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815372

Thanks
B

 

[58sniper]

That server doesn't have enough RAM. A good recommendation is 2GB + 10MB for every user - JUST FOR THE OS & EXCHANGE. The fact that you have SQL on it makes it more demanding of the resources.

And yes, it's worth going though that KB.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[bernie321]

Thanks for your post,

We were thinking of maxing out the RAM to 4gb shortly, but were putting it off as the the machine will be going off to another site to be reinstalled as a replicated remote office server running Win2k3 R2 Standard, Exchange, ISA & SQL. The date for this keeps getting put back.

We were going to test the performance then and decide, probably best to just get the RAM anyway.

Thanks
B

 

[58sniper]

You'll still need more RAM to fit the future role as well.

Exchange likes RAM. A LOT. While it will grab a lot of available RAM, it will give some of it up if needed.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[bernie321]

Thanks Pat,

2GB more on its way.

Regards,

Simon

 

[bernie321]

Sorry just returning to this.....

We do not have the /3GB switch in place.

So that I am clear some say that even with only 2GB of RAM I should have the /3GB switch set others say not. What would you recommend with both 2GB and our shortly 4GB?

Some of my reading:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=823440

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/mi...s+low+idle+time&rnum=1&hl=en#816eee9a0bfee1e6

Thanks
B

 

[58sniper]

You shouldn't use those settings with SBS.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[bernie321]

Thanks again Pat,

Have a good weekend!

B