MSExchangeIS Error Virtual Memory 1

[spike03]

I am getting an error in the event log that says:

Virtual memory is fragmented in a way that normal operation may being to fail. You need to restart exchange services to correct this issue.
FIX: on the Microsoft website it says that service pack 1 fixes the problem. We currently have service pack 3 installed on the server.

I am running W2K server serivce pack 3 with exchange serive pack 3.

I have to keep rebooting the server because it is slow.

has anyone experianced this problem before?
thanks in advance

S.

 

[xmsre]

You can adjust the DB cache size, as well as msExchESEParamMaxOpenTables, but without W2K advanced you won't be able to use the /3GB switch. Without the /3GB switch, there shouldn't be a need to modify system pages.

 

[dmandell]

Thanks,
Not using /3gb switch or advanced server.

Some process that kicks off exactly every hour after the IS is started is causing the issue. The perf log shows a change in the largest virtual memory block size exactly on that interval.

Dana

 

[mwrock]

I am having the same problem each hour, exactly to the minute.

I am running Windows Server 2000, Exchange 2000, Symantec Mail Security 4.0 and GFI Mail Essentials 9.0. The server has 2 GB of RAM and Swap file of 3070 MG. I am trying to track down what is running at 18 after the hour. I will report back if I can track it down.

 

[dmandell]

It's seems to be something that kicks off on hour intervals after the IS is started. If you restart the IS the VM block size changes happen exactly in hour increments after that.

My setup is almost exactly the same as yours but I am using Trend Anti virus.

Anybody have any ideas?
Dana

 

[xmsre]

Try disabling the live update for SMS for a few hours. You might be surprised.

 

[dmandell]

Nice thought...
I have the same setup but without (Symantec) SMS and have the same issue. So I don't that is the source of the problem.

Dana

 

[Flashgordon]

I think you'll find the system is providing the warning every hour just to alert you, it isn't being caused by something every hour.
p.s. I DONT know what is causing it, though, although we use sophos mailmonitor for exchange and sophos have had reports of the problem and are looking into it.

 

[Flashgordon]

Just found a link to Q315407 on MS KB which may help.
I'm certainly going to try it.

 

[Mia03]

Hi everyone,

I have just been through this problem. 9582 error messages every hour. Here is my scenario and findings:

I'm running Windows 2000 server and Exchange 2000 on a machine with 4Gb RAM.

Some truths:
Exchange 2000 will run on Windows 2000 server
Windows 2000 server will run on a machine with 4Gb of RAM
Exchange 2000 server will run on a machine with 4Gb of RAM

HOWEVER - put them all together and you have a problem.

Here's the conflict:

When running Exchange 2000 in an environment with over 1Gb of RAM, the presence of the /3Gb switch is required in the boot.ini file

BUT

When running Windows 2000 server in an environment with over 1Gb of RAM, the /3Gb switch in the boot.ini file absoloutly cannot be present.

So what to do? Well, I thought it would have to be something drastic. Here are the 2 solutions I came up with:

1. Install Windows 2000 Advanced server. This would allow the presence of the /3gb switch in the boot.ini file however, there is no upgrade path from Windows 2000 server to 2000 advanced server so it would mean a clean install and Exchange server rebuild Ahhhhh!!!!

2. Remove excess memory from the server to bring it down to 1Gb. Not an ideal solution at all.

But then I logged a call with Microsoft and they directed me to this article - 838233. There is a fix specifically for this which you have to get directly from MS. I applied it 3 days ago and have not had one error since. So it seems to have worked.

Check out the article. I hope it helps. Also, here are a few other articles which I used during my research:
325044
328882
266768

Everyone's environments are different so maybe this fix would not work for all but the articles might point you in the right direction.

Best of luck with it, it drove me mad for 3 weeks!! Please let me know how you get on. I'll keep you posted in case I get any more errors, it has only been three days since I applied it here......

Mia

 

[dmandell]

Thanks, Mia!
I got the Hot fix from Microsoft
I'll give it a try.

Dana

 

[bigpapapump]

Dana,

Did it work for you? I am having the same issue.

 

[Mia03]

Hi all,

Sorry to report, 5 days (almost to the hour) after applying the fix, the same errors have returned to my event log. Back to the drawing board.....

The fragmentation seems to be a lot slower so I don't have to reboot every 12 hours, but that's not much consolation. I have reopened the call with Microsoft and will keep you posted.

Mia

 

[dmandell]

emiller,
I will be installing the patch tonight. I will let you know.

Mia, instead of rebooting the whole server, I have found that just restarting the exchange IS will clear the VM issue.
I just thought you might like to know until you get a fix.
(it's less disruptive to do this, only because it takes about 20 seconds downtime instead of maybe 10 minutes for a full reboot.

Good luck, we are all puling for you!

Dana

 

[Mia03]

Thanks Dana,

I hope the fix works for you! Yeah, I thought of just stopping the service, but the server we are using is brand new and a reboot only takes about 3 minutes. It works either way.....

Good luck!

 

[dmandell]

ahh, new equipment...
(I've heard it does exist in some organizations)

Good for you!

Dana

 

[bigpapapump]

I will be appling the same hot fix and will keep you posted.

 

[mdunph]

Mia, I also applied the latest hotfix from Microsoft last week, and the Event Id 9582 warnings came back. This was after exhausting all the recommendations from the several MS KB articles already mentioned.

It seems to me the only real way to fix this is to install Advaned Server and run with the /3GB switch. However, prior to doing that I'm going to strip this system down to 1GB and see if that makes a difference. What the concensus on this?

Thanks all!

 

[bigpapapump]

I was at 3gb's of RAM and recently upgraded to 4. It was then that I noticed the error message. I haven't noticed any performance issues though.
I know the amount of RAM is not supposed to be related to this error but it is a strange coincidence. If the hot fix does not work then I back off to 3gb's and see if that helps.

 

[Mia03]

mdunph,

I'm also thinking that installing advanced server may be the only course of action. Seems a shame to strip down the RAM on your server......

Still, there's no upgrade path from W2K standard to advanced server...... I wouldn't even know where to begin!! How would you approach that installation?

 

[matt4x4]

Hi all,
Just wanted to let you know that if you are only receiving the 9582 warning NOT error, then you can safely ignore it, however, if you experience the error, then plan to restart your exchange store within the next 36-72 hours.
In my environment, my server is not accessed frequently during the night time, I have scheduled 2 batches that automatically stop my exchange services and start my exchange services one minute appart at 2am, this lets me run my server 24/7 without a system restart and seems to work like a charm. I have yet to see the error, only the warnings.
I have researched this issue more than anything else and there is no answer other than 2k3 everything. 2k server std with exchange and more than 2GB of ram will throw this warning every time - exchange 2k is unable to defragment it's own memory allocations and therefore causes this. Exchange 2k3 however has many more automated optimization tools built in and therefor runs much smoother.
Also, your AV does not come into play here, but if you're having calendaring issues it's likely that your AV is scanning yur m: drive, your exchgsrv directories, your winnt\system32\inetsrv directory as well as the following file extensions (edb, log, chk, stm). Exclude all this from your virus scan and your calendaring issues will likely disappear.
Hope this helps you all out to some degree.

matt