Windows Server 2008 - Memory Leak - SMB2

 It would seem that when you are copying files between two Windows 2008 x64 servers it first copies the file into memory before sending the file to it’s destination.  The larger the file you try to copy the more memory it will consume and the more it will increase the likelihood of us running out of memory. This problem does not manifest when files are copied between different Windows Server versions (2003 to 2008). I’ll include a technical explanation below.

  To protect us going forward we are implementing a moratorium on copying large files through Windows Explorer from any Windows 2008 servers  when the destination OS is any of the following: Vista (any version), Windows 7 (any version), and Windows 2008.

Technical Explanation

Attached, find an image from some perfmon counters running on Primary Database server during the problem period that shows the Cache Bytes increasing (file copy consuming available memory) and the Available Memory Bytes decreasing.
 
 Test Resulted in Large Memory Consumption

Large file copy within Windows Explorer between 2 Windows 2008 Servers (The OS decides to use SMB2)
 
Test Resulted in No Memory Consumption Problems

 Large file copy within Windows Explorer between 1 Windows 2003 Server and 1 Windows 2008 Server

Large file copy within Windows Explorer between 2 Windows 2008 Servers with SMB2 disabled

Large file copy between 2 Windows 2008 Servers using ESEUTIL to copy the file
 
  According to Microsoft the Windows Explorer is performing as designed when executing a copy of a large file. When Windows Server determines that it has 2, Windows 2008 servers communicating, it uses SMB2 to facilitate the transfer, which leverages a buffered file copy. There are many utilities that suffer from this problem as well (OS commands COPY, XCOPY, and ROBOCOPY (2008 only)).
  The only safe work around when moving files between 2 Windows 2008 Servers is to use an Exchange utility called ESEUTIL. One of the methods this utility supports is what’s called an unbuffered copy, ie 0 impact on available memory’s bottom line.