How to lower my 'Page File Usage'

[phillydog]

I'm using WIN/2003 server. when I start my PC, it has a PF Usage of about 250-300 megs... sometimes (if left on for a week or so), the PF Usage is almost a GIG, and I need to reboot and it goes back down to
the original 250-300 megs....

Is there any way of doing this WITHOUT rebooting?

 

[Davegod75]

don't let the OS control it or make it a fixed size. i.e. set the size min and max to 500mb or so

 

[NewBlackDak]

What kind of server is it?
If it's an SQL server then I'd expect this behavior, and lock the pagefile in at 1.0-1.5GB.
If it's just a file server then I'd lock the page in at about 512MB.

You might have an app with a memory leak though, and that needs to be your point of focus.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: Davegod75
don't let the OS control it or make it a fixed size. i.e. set the size min and max to 500mb or so

That won't affect the actual page file usage.

Anyway, open up task manager, go to the processes tab, view->select columns, check "Virtual Memory Size", and see who is eating up so much memory.

 

[Sianath]

I'm betting on memory leak. If you are slowly growing and never shrink back down, someone is probably allocating but not freeing memory properly.


Either set up a perfmon trace, or check the VM Size like CTho9305 suggested a couple times a day... just sort by largest size and see who the winner is as the day progresses.

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: phillydog
I'm using WIN/2003 server. when I start my PC, it has a PF Usage of about 250-300 megs... sometimes (if left on for a week or so), the PF Usage is almost a GIG, and I need to reboot and it goes back down to
the original 250-300 megs....

Is there any way of doing this WITHOUT rebooting?

Normally i would say don't worry about it, whatever is paged out is ok to HAVE paged out but 250-300 seems like a lot and for it to grow into a GB is too much.

Which apps are you running on your server?

 

[Nothinman]

don't let the OS control it or make it a fixed size. i.e. set the size min and max to 500mb or so

That won't affect the usage, just the available space and will most likely cause more problems than it fixes.

Why are you rebooting? A server is supposed to give priority to file caching and network access, if you're having a problem with local response times you're using the wrong OS. And on top of that, the term PF Usage that task manager shows is misleading, it's not solely pagefile usage. It also includes other things like reservations which count as PF Usage but are still cached in memory.