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Memory issue on Windows 2016 Server

Thomas Grassi
Thomas Grassi asked
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Last Modified: 2019-03-24
I keep getting this message displayed

Memory Error

The Server is windows 2016 Datacenter running as a VM on ESXI 6.5  It is part of a DAG Exchange 2016 CU10

This pops up all the time.
I understand exchange 2016 grabs all the memory it needs  to process. I even tried to throttle the memory for exchange. no luck here.

Any way to suppress this ignoring display?
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MaheshArchitect
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Distinguished Expert 2019

Commented:
How much memory assigned to server and how much server is utilizing?
OR
Its vmware who using memory ballooning to pull free memory from exchange because host may be itself running with short of memory
In that case you can disable memory ballooning for exchange virtual machine
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1002586

Further Check how much memory is assigned to exchange vm and how much it is consuming?
Check pages/sec page file counter and check how much is page file utlization
If its beyond 70 through vertical graph, your virtual server needs more memory
Also how much virtual memory is assigned to server?
You cab manually set it to 8 gb to further reduce warning messages
Philip ElderTechnical Architect - HA/Compute/Storage
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Commented:
What is the swap file setting? What is the disk layout for the VM?

More than likely there's not enough vRAM assigned to the VM and it's running out of memory and thus swapping which is in turn running out of memory.

As a rule, Exchange VMs should get static memory assigned to them. They are not very happy with dynamic RAM setups where memory keeps growing as demand does.
Thomas GrassiSystems Administrator

Author

Commented:
Mahesh

The link does not provide any information but a blank page

Phillip

First all my vm use static memory assigned not dynamic.

My swap file setup

swap file
My disk layout

disk space

The VM settings

vm settings

Any ideas?
PRADIIP SINGH
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Commented:
Which process is utilization the high memory ? did you set the proper AV exclusion for the Exchange?
Thomas GrassiSystems Administrator

Author

Commented:
Pradiip

Microsoft Exchange store worker.exe
noderunner.exe
IIS Worker process
 

Whet is AV exclusion for Exchange?          Anti Virus?

If so I have defender running  

Just checked Defender is not doing real time scanning
PRADIIP SINGH
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Commented:
Store.exe should be okay , the one should be questioned are

noderunner.exe and IIS worker process.


1- Can you check the health of the Indexes of the DB's  just to make sure all are in healthy state
2- For the catalos folder just double check if disk performance is all okay
3- May be you can parse the IIS log on the server to check which all request are hitting  (There is IIS log parser tool)
4- We should make sure that none of the Exchange files\Folder are scanned it should be excluded from the AC scanning
PRADIIP SINGH
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Commented:
Also try recycling the Search service on the server
MaheshArchitect
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Commented:
The link was opening until yesterday night
We need to find another link how to disable memory ballooning with vmware virtual machine
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert / EE Fellow)VMware and Virtualization Consultant
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Commented:
We've seen issues like this before on Windows, Memory Leak by an application.

You should be able to look at Task Manager, and observe the application/process which starts to gobble memory.
Architect
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Commented:
The VMware kb is opening now
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1002586

Your best option could be disable memory ballooning / overcommittment for Exchange VM as per above article and then set virtual memory for exchange server on swap drive to 8 GB (minimum and maximum) instead of system managed - bigger swap file is required if memory ballooning is configured but it also slow down performance and increase VM startup / shutdown time
also ensure that swap partition is thick provisioned disk / LUN
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.resmgmt.doc/GUID-AC40823A-695B-438A-A8F2-4B7C51A0D014.html

After above changes warning message should disappear
Thomas GrassiSystems Administrator

Author

Commented:
Guys
Sorry for the delay.

I am waiting on some new hardware for another ESXI Host. Memory CPU and Network Adapter.

Then going to my NODE 1 to that ESXI host

The current host has a large load and may be the cause.

Will update later this week.

Thanks.
Thomas GrassiSystems Administrator

Author

Commented:
Thanks Everyone.

After moving the VM to another ESXI Host the problem went away.

I had three other VMs' on the original host all had 32 GB of memory set. but they where windows 2012 R2 this one was Windows 2016 Data Center.

I moved the VM about 5 days ago and have not seen the Memory Message pop up

Thanks Tom