asked on

Inetinfo.exe and store.exe keep taking memory on Exchange 2003 server. This is not normal behavior.

Here's the setup.
Windows 2003
Exchange 2003 Advanced
GFI Mail Essentials
GFI Mail Security
Backup Exec 10
Dell Poweredge 2500
1.0 ghz processor
1.5GB memory

I know this type of question has been asked and often the reply is that this is normal behavior. Inetinfo and store both keep growing until they choke the server. This weekend, when no one was sending and recieving mail, both inetinfo and store were using nearly 500MB of ram. I couldn't log in remotely to the server nor could I access email.

I am starting and stopping services once or twice a day to deal with the issue. The problem started around 3 weeks ago. I used to be running Symantec AV but I changed in hope of solving the issue.

Thanks for your help.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

december41991

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aa230002

Do you see any errors or warnings related to this in your Application log or System log? (pls check the sys log also)
first of all, update your OS, Exchange server and Antivirus program all with whatever service packs and updates available. There might be a memory leak somewhere.
tools suggested above are good tools. They should help you in this case.

Thanks,
Amit Aggarwal.

tcarrillo

ASKER

I had previosly run the Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer and the Best Practices Analyzer. I made changes recommended by the BPA. The TBA results were not any help but I am going to see if I'm missing something.

I added the /3GB and /userva=3030 switches to the boot.ini and rebooted. The result is that store.exe was using 645MB of memory almost immediatley. I removed the switches and rebooted.

Also, correcting my original post, the version of Windows is 2003 Enterprise.

december41991

Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer(PTA) was used as you say. Did you see any bottle necks ?
When we are working with performance its advised to check four component
1. Memory
2. Disk
3. Processor
4.Network

PTA will show if you have any bottle neck in any of these four.

What is the version of store.exe. ( the latest I think is 6.5.7651.14 in KB: 916783 ).

Try stopping the SMTP service and monitor the store.exe

Since when is this happening. Any large mail in loop?

let us know...

Dominic

tcarrillo

ASKER

This morning before work I disabled rebooted the exchange server and stopped the SMTP service shortly after. Inetinfo dropped from using 132MB to 58MB and it stayed there. Store.exe stayed at its baseline of 32MB. As soon as I restarted SMTP Inetinfo jumped back up and both inetinfo and store began incrementally increasing.

What do I do with this information?

december41991

Supposedly these problems are to go away if you have your server
service packs up to date.

What is the version of STORE.EXE ?
What is the service pack for Exchange and Windows.?
Can you check your application log? Post the errors with descriptions.

Try renaming the VSi 1 folder. (C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mailroot\vsi 1\)

Is you log files also growing faster ?

GFI Mail Essentials ? do have that ?(http://kbase.gfi.com/showarticle.asp?id=KBID001924)

The inetinfo.exe process uses lots of memory and memory usage continues to increase until the SMTP service is unresponsive in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905291

It might also be a message loop somewhere.

Related KB to give you an idea ..:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=830695

Try provinding more info...... :)

tcarrillo

ASKER

I decided to let the Exchange Server and not do any reboots for a week. Store.exe has stayed between 380MB of memory usage. Inetinfo.exe goes up and down between 170MB and 400MB. I still don't know why I had the jump with these two process but if there are no further problems I am going to leave things as they are. I will add more memory to make sure I don't have problems with these processes choking the server.

I will award points to december 41991 because his posts helped me to exhaust the possibilities and helped me to learn a lot in the process.

december41991

When you start the smtp service things go to normal. This surely means a mail ( incoming or out going when its been processed by the store is causing the issue. I could also conclude that this may be from the .stm file ( owa user accessing RAW MIME format which is still not converted to edb because innet is also spiking up. ) All this ehaviour was an issue but M$ has updated a lot since. Have a update done things should be better.

"It might be an infinite loop or something else not releasing memory etc "

Info:
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Monitoring-Exchange-Finding-Common-Problems.html

best of luck

Dominic