pmckenna11
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Store.exe not releasing memory?
We are running SBS 2011 with Exchange 2010 on a server with 16G of memory. Recently there are have been issues with remote logins via RWW. Users can connect to the sharepoint site but when they try to continue on to make a connection to one of the remote machines nothing happens.
While troubleshooting I am finding that memory usage is at or close to 100% with store.exe using most of the available memory (about 8.5G). If I stop then restart the service the store.exe memory usage drops way down to a reasonable level and users are then able to connect remotely without difficultly. Memory usage will then remain stable for 5 or 6 hours but eventually when I check back store.exe has again sucked up all the memory and users cannont connect.
I know that many say that it is normal for store.exe to use all available memory but I do not see this behavior on two other SBS machine I manage. At the very least it would appear to me that store.exe is not releasing memory back to the pool when it is needed. I also don't see why it would be necessary for store.exe to use 8.5G of memory to support email for 12 users when no one is in the office.
The remote connection issue started to appear within the last couple of weeks. This would coincide with some updates that were installed at or around that time (Exchange Rollup 8 - 4/14 and Sharepoint SP2 with a couple of other Sharepoint updates on 4/18).
I am considering rolling back the updates but am concerned about compounding problems. Any thoughts or troubleshooting tips would be appreciated.
While troubleshooting I am finding that memory usage is at or close to 100% with store.exe using most of the available memory (about 8.5G). If I stop then restart the service the store.exe memory usage drops way down to a reasonable level and users are then able to connect remotely without difficultly. Memory usage will then remain stable for 5 or 6 hours but eventually when I check back store.exe has again sucked up all the memory and users cannont connect.
I know that many say that it is normal for store.exe to use all available memory but I do not see this behavior on two other SBS machine I manage. At the very least it would appear to me that store.exe is not releasing memory back to the pool when it is needed. I also don't see why it would be necessary for store.exe to use 8.5G of memory to support email for 12 users when no one is in the office.
The remote connection issue started to appear within the last couple of weeks. This would coincide with some updates that were installed at or around that time (Exchange Rollup 8 - 4/14 and Sharepoint SP2 with a couple of other Sharepoint updates on 4/18).
I am considering rolling back the updates but am concerned about compounding problems. Any thoughts or troubleshooting tips would be appreciated.
ASKER
So a couple of things. First only a couple of users have mailboxes approaching 2Megs. Most have much less and all are capped at 2Megs so I don't see how caching could use 8.5 Gigs. Also the jump in memory seems to happen abruptly at some point after hours of running at a much lower usage.
Secondly this behavior is new and I don't see it on other SBS machines I manage. One in particular makes far heavier usage of Exchange.
Finally RWW is Sharepoint and is obviously an MS app. SBS was designed to meld all these services into a single box so they should all play well together.
Everything works fine until store.exe takes memory usage up to 100%. At that point only does the remote access break. It remains broken until store is restarted. Repeating logins does not help. Restarting store temporarily solves the problem so it would appear that the very least store is not releasing memory as it should.
Secondly this behavior is new and I don't see it on other SBS machines I manage. One in particular makes far heavier usage of Exchange.
Finally RWW is Sharepoint and is obviously an MS app. SBS was designed to meld all these services into a single box so they should all play well together.
Everything works fine until store.exe takes memory usage up to 100%. At that point only does the remote access break. It remains broken until store is restarted. Repeating logins does not help. Restarting store temporarily solves the problem so it would appear that the very least store is not releasing memory as it should.
ASKER
I have seen that page before. In another post he describes a way of putting a cap on the amount of memory store uses. I was thinking about using a cap but again this behavior is new and I don't see it on other SBS servers I manage. I just checked 2 SBS servers which have been running undisturbed for a few weeks and store is not using excessive amounts of memory on either. There is plenty of unallocated memory on both.
So the whole store memory usage may be a Red Herring but what is certain is that stopping Store and releasing memory solves my users remote connection issues. Perhaps the problem is with Sharepoint instead and the way it is asking for memory
So the whole store memory usage may be a Red Herring but what is certain is that stopping Store and releasing memory solves my users remote connection issues. Perhaps the problem is with Sharepoint instead and the way it is asking for memory
Store.exe using a lot of memory is nothing upsetting, as we all agree on.
Not releasing memory is. Probably it thinks it needs that memory permanently - do you see a lot of work done by Exchange over a longer period?
As I see it you would now need means to debug what Store.exe knows about its memory - but I don't know of any diagnostics available here. Maybe some performance counters ...
Not releasing memory is. Probably it thinks it needs that memory permanently - do you see a lot of work done by Exchange over a longer period?
As I see it you would now need means to debug what Store.exe knows about its memory - but I don't know of any diagnostics available here. Maybe some performance counters ...
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ASKER
Prompted by this page
http://www.bursky.net/index.php/2012/05/limit-exchange-2010-memory-use/
I decided to go ahead and put a cap on the amount of RAM Exchange is using. That seems to have fixed the problem at least temporarily. Of course this does not address the underlying problem.
I checked and indeed this server is only running SP2. I will update it to SP3 shortly but want to wait a bit to see how it runs with just the memory cap.
I did not run psconfig after installing the Sharepoint updates and after following the link posted by OxfordSBSguy I do see several update related issues that need to be addressed. This is perhaps the root problem! I will get on this right away.
Finally browser compatibility issues are a constant source of headache with RWW. In this case that is not causing the problem but frequently someone changes something in their browser then I get a call.
http://www.bursky.net/index.php/2012/05/limit-exchange-2010-memory-use/
I decided to go ahead and put a cap on the amount of RAM Exchange is using. That seems to have fixed the problem at least temporarily. Of course this does not address the underlying problem.
I checked and indeed this server is only running SP2. I will update it to SP3 shortly but want to wait a bit to see how it runs with just the memory cap.
I did not run psconfig after installing the Sharepoint updates and after following the link posted by OxfordSBSguy I do see several update related issues that need to be addressed. This is perhaps the root problem! I will get on this right away.
Finally browser compatibility issues are a constant source of headache with RWW. In this case that is not causing the problem but frequently someone changes something in their browser then I get a call.
ASKER
Thanks for all the suggestions. They have been very helpful. The problem has been solved. I put an upper and lower limit on the amount of memory that Store can use. I also ran psconfig as was suggested. I believe that somehow the Sharepoint Service pack and related updates caused the problem and that running psconfig as suggested by OxfordSBSGuy solved the root problem.
Store has been sitting at 1G (which is the min) everytime I have checked it. It has been a week now with no more problems. Thanks!
Store has been sitting at 1G (which is the min) everytime I have checked it. It has been a week now with no more problems. Thanks!
The reason Store.exe uses all available memory, if reasonable, is to cache the mailboxes as much as possible, to speed up access. So not the number of mailboxes determines the memory, but the overall size of mailboxes plus index into them.