Store.exe using all memory... and no virtual left

[danomac]

STORE.EXE seems to be hogging a lot of memory (well over 1GB, on a 1.5GB machine) and the OS complains about running out of virtual memory on a constant basis.

It's SBS 2000.

I've looked at other articles trying to resolve this problem and I cannot figure it out. Has anyone else had this problem?

ISA and TS are active on the server as well.

thanks

D

 

[dellboy]

I have seen this before and experienced this myself on a stand alone Exchange box, I spent some time finding out what store.exe was and if there was a solution. It seems that store.exe will use as much memory as possible and there is little that can be done about it. I was concerned about it but then, as always, something more urgent came along, in the end the problem was never resolved and from the reading I did at the time seemed to be 'quite normal'. I know this doesn't fix your problem.

 

[danno74]

How big is the mailstore? store.exe is the mailstore, correct? We had to have a mass exodus of making people clean up their mailboxes to reduce the memory load.

 

[danomac]

The store is 1.5GB in size. We have 75 users.

D

 

[MattRichards]

I've got an 8gig mailstore, on a server with 2.5 gig of ram. store.exe is using 980meg, how do I get it to use more?

 

[PalmerAK]

Similar problem here. Our store.exe memory will occasionaly get up as high as 2gig. The oulook client will act very sluggish and we will be forced to reboot the server. After the reboot things will be fine again. The server has dual 2.2gig zeons w/ 2.5GB of RAM. This machine should be able to handle anything we can throw at it with only 100 users. Store size is only 4GB.

Has anyone else heard of the possibility of a memory leak issue? Here is a copy/paste of another users tektips post.


Question:
I have a two clients who use MS SBS 2000. At each site they have a similar problem:

STORE.EXE increases its memory usage as time goes on, and eventually takes up to 95% of available system memory.

If you either restart the server, or stop and restart the Exchange services, the memory usage goes down to normal. However, almost automatically the memory usage starts creeping up, and eventually gets to the 90-95% range again.

It doesn't appear to be affecting the server, save that the server responds slowly when you are working on it directly.

I have applied all patches, including Exchange SP3.

The server also runs Norton Anti-Virus Corp. 8.0, and Veritas Backup Exec 9.5.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

TN

Accepted Answer:

I found this One:
In general, you need to consider two separate issues when you're watching store.exe's RAM usage: how much RAM the executable uses and whether it releases that RAM when needed. The Dynamic Buffer Allocation (DBA) code built into Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange 5.5 is supposed to use as much RAM as it can to efficiently cache database and directory information. However, the DBA is designed to return RAM when the system needs it. The DBA watches the rate at which virtual memory paging occurs so that it can detect demands for more physical RAM and give up some of its hoard. During usual operations, you can watch Performance Monitor's virtual memory counters to see this process in action.

Unfortunately, you occasionally run into memory leaks, in which the Information Store (IS) or other Exchange components allocate RAM, use it, then forget to free it. Most of these leaks are small, but even a leak that consumes only 1KB per hour will eventually suck up all the RAM on a server. Stopping the offending process or rebooting the machine brings everything back to normal, at least until the conditions that permit the leak recur.

If you suspect that your server has a memory leak, call Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS). If a known bug or flaw is causing the leak, PSS will give you a free hotfix. If Support Professionals aren't familiar with the cause, they'll work with you to identify the leak source, then they'll give you a fix for the problem.

 

[danomac]

I also found out that my server needed the /3GB switch, in boot.ini.

I hope this solves the problem. I'll find out in a few days.

D