Pagefile issues for win2k server?

[edmicman]

I've got a fairly hefty win2k database server with a RAID 5 array where there is "one" drive in 4 different partitions. The OS drive is set to 4GB, and the other partitions have tons of free space. The problem is that windows is showing about 300MB free on the OS drive, and I think the pagefile is taking up all the space, as it says its allocated for something like 1.9GB. I'm not sure how much of this is used since it has a gig of RAM, but anyway, I was wondering if theres any problems with moving the pagefile to one of the other partitions that have a ton of free space.

Maybe I'm going at this wrong? I don't really notice a problem on the server performance wise, nor have I heard anyone complain, but I see occasional messages that it is running out of hard drive space (since it is showing like 300MB free). There only seems to actually be somewhere around 1.7 gigs of info there, though. Could there be something else? Thanks for any info!

 

[Woodie]

The pagefile recommendations haven't changed a whole lot...usually right around 2x the amount of physical RAM. (Search for the flame-wars about this).

You can configure your Pagefile to write to multiple partitions...assigning .5 gig to each (logical) drive on your server. However, if the Pagefile on the C drive is less than the amount of physical memory you have, you will not get full system dumps in the case of BSODs. Pagefile on the C drive must be at least 2MB.

Go to...My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced tab -> Performance Options -> <Virtual Memory> - Change.

Now you can tune it to your hearts delight.

 

[edmicman]

Thanks for the info - so does the pagefile actually show up as taking "space" on the drive it's on? Maybe I've just never noticed it on the workstations and home pcs I've used. So on the server, say it has 1GB of RAM and a 4GB OS drive. If I want to put the pagefile on another drive, I'd allocate say 2GB of space on the other drive, then what? Zero out the allocation on the OS drive (C🙂? Or set it to something like 10MB or something? Thanks!

 

[Woodie]

Yes, the pagefile is a file, and shows up on the root of the (C🙂 drive.
Do a "dir /as" from the command prompt at the root of c:. You'll see a very large file called, pagefile.sys.

To re-allocate, follow the instructions I posted above. Note that the minimum size for the pagefile on the C: drive is 2MBs. I would suggest that you try re-allocating your pagefile as follows (assuming that you have no interest in memory dumps/BSODs). Based on your statement of 1024 MB RAM...
c: min: 512 MB, Max: 512 MB
d: min: 1536 MB, Max: 1536 MB
REBOOT. (Changes won't take effect until then)

This should free up about a gig of drive space on your C drive.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Woodie
The pagefile recommendations haven't changed a whole lot...usually right around 2x the amount of physical RAM. (Search for the flame-wars about this).

You can configure your Pagefile to write to multiple partitions...assigning .5 gig to each (logical) drive on your server. However, if the Pagefile on the C drive is less than the amount of physical memory you have, you will not get full system dumps in the case of BSODs. Pagefile on the C drive must be at least 2MB.

Go to...My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced tab -> Performance Options -> <Virtual Memory> - Change.

Now you can tune it to your hearts delight.

With 1G of RAM he may not need a huge pagefile; the 2x RAM was true when people had 32M of RAM, but is less true nowadays; typically people do RAM + 20MB or so if they have large amounts of RAM already.

In any case, a complete dump typically isn't required if the purpose of the dump is to troubleshoot a BSOD - a kernel dump will take care of that, and those are typically only 50M to 250M, hence requiring a pagefile on C: of 300M or so. Your 512MB suggestion sounds good, IMHO.