Windows 2003 Standard - G7 servers - NonPaged-Pool Memory.

[chuckk281]

Phillipe had a memory question in regards to Windows 2003 Standard server edition:

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We have encountered an issue on customer site.

Issue : Non paged-pool memory very high

The goal is to install an exchange server with the option /3GB in the boot.ini

So theorically, Non paged-pool = 128 MB max.

When reinstalling a windows 2003 Standard Edition on a DL385 G7 for an exchange enterprise setup, we have the following behavior

1. Fresh windows installation with driver for ILO, Network, network team, HBA
   1. Non paged-pool = 35 MB
   2. Problem during installation with HBA driver from HP. (From PSP 8.70)
   3. SP2 installation
      1. Non paged- pool memory = 82 MB.
      2. HBA driver for HP StorageWorks 82Q 8-Gb PCI-e Dual Channel HBA (product number AJ764A) – PSP 8.70 + Update storport.sys.
         1. a.       Non paged- pool memory = 115 MB.

Exchange has not enough memory afterwards to run correctly. We encounter problem with Outlook web access which don’t want to run event if we put some registry key to force IIS (need at least 20MB of free NPP)

Do you have any idea on the root cause of this consumption ?

Thanks in advance for all your reply.

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Info from Javier:

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NPP on Exchange server 32 bits is an old friend of support…….

From my experience the following 1-4 points are critical and after apply all of them you can save between 15-20 Mb of NPP (I’ve obviated advisories about NIC drivers eating NPP, upgrade NIC drivers to the latest).

1.- Boot.ini, use BASEVIDEO and uninstall from device manager the graphic card driver.

2.- Completely disable all windows Offload features:

       a) Open registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

       b) Change “EnableTCPChimney” = 0.   

       c) Change “EnableRSS”  = 0.   

       d) Change “EnableTCPA= 0.   

       e) New DWORD value “DisableTaskOffload” = 1.

3.- Disable offload features in NIC or TEAM drivers as well.

       a) Receive-Side Scaling = Uncheck Enabled

       b) TCP Offload Engine = uncheck Enabled  

4.- Important install all recommended Win2K3 post-SP2 hotfixes.

5.- You can also move EXIFS, free list (Flst) and auxiliary free list (AuxL) to Paged Pool which is much more big.

           - HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EXIFS\Parameters

                  • Add “AuxFreeListInPagedPool” = REG_DWORD, 0x00000001

                  • Add “FreeListInPagedPool” = REG_DWORD, 0x00000001

6.- You can also add “EnableAggressiveMemoryUsage=1”. This setting allow the HTTP service stop accepting connections when free nonpaged pool memory reaches 8 MB instead 20 MB (by default).

           - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HTTP\Parameters

                  • Añadir “EnableAggressiveMemoryUsage”  = REG_DWORD, 0x00000001

Anyway, as John says, POOLMON is the best way to detect hungry tags, I’ve found issues with drivers, 3rd party services (antivirus, monitoring apps,…) or OS drivers like AFD.SYS or HTTP.SYS

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Other suggestions or comments?