Showing posts with label page. Show all posts
Showing posts with label page. Show all posts

Monday, March 12, 2012

Excessive Page Faults?

I am noticing that an many of my servers (Server 2003 EE SP2 R2), that the
MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are creating a significant number of
page faults.
For example, on my SQL 2000 SP4 server with 4GB RAM which has been up for 19
days has nearly 19M page faults on MsMpEng and over 16M faults on MOMHost.
Another example is my Exchange 2003 SP2 with 4GB RAM which has also been up
for 19 days has nearly 182M faults on MsMpEng and nearly 16M faults on
MOMHost.
Keep in mind that the "M" with the number is million.
We only recently started using Forefront on our servers, and this appears to
be a relatively new issue, and I would like to know if others have been
experiencing this as well.
RichardThis is not an exchange issue...
But take a look at
http://geekswithblogs.net/Coleman/archive/2007/03/26/109906.aspx
"Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com...
>I am noticing that an many of my servers (Server 2003 EE SP2 R2), that the
>MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are creating a significant number of
>page faults.
> For example, on my SQL 2000 SP4 server with 4GB RAM which has been up for
> 19 days has nearly 19M page faults on MsMpEng and over 16M faults on
> MOMHost.
> Another example is my Exchange 2003 SP2 with 4GB RAM which has also been
> up for 19 days has nearly 182M faults on MsMpEng and nearly 16M faults on
> MOMHost.
> Keep in mind that the "M" with the number is million.
> We only recently started using Forefront on our servers, and this appears
> to be a relatively new issue, and I would like to know if others have been
> experiencing this as well.
> Richard|||Thanks for the link to the article. This does give some additional
information, however the problem in the article points more to high CPU
utilization rather than high number of page faults. Perhaps since this also
includes the MOM components, I should try posting in that forum as the
Forefront group is fairly new?
Richard
"Betelgeuse" <betelgeuse@.news.postalias> wrote in message
news:OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> This is not an exchange issue...
> But take a look at
> http://geekswithblogs.net/Coleman/archive/2007/03/26/109906.aspx
>
> "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
> news:3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com...
>>I am noticing that an many of my servers (Server 2003 EE SP2 R2), that the
>>MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are creating a significant number of
>>page faults.
>> For example, on my SQL 2000 SP4 server with 4GB RAM which has been up for
>> 19 days has nearly 19M page faults on MsMpEng and over 16M faults on
>> MOMHost.
>> Another example is my Exchange 2003 SP2 with 4GB RAM which has also been
>> up for 19 days has nearly 182M faults on MsMpEng and nearly 16M faults on
>> MOMHost.
>> Keep in mind that the "M" with the number is million.
>> We only recently started using Forefront on our servers, and this appears
>> to be a relatively new issue, and I would like to know if others have
>> been experiencing this as well.
>> Richard
>|||Dear Richard,
Thank you for posting here.
I understand that the process MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are
creating a significant number of page faults on several servers.
According to your description, it appears that the issue should not on the
SQL Server side. Based on my experience, this behavior can occur due to a
Memory Leak but sometimes it is normal for some processes. In order to
ensure the current status, I would like to confirm the following
information before going further:
1. Has the performance on these severs been affected due to this issue?
2. Please also use the Performance Monitor utility to monitor the stability
of memory pages used by these two processes.
To do so, please refer to the following steps:
--
a. Enter the Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Performance.
b. Select "Process" in the "Performance object" selection
c. Add the following counter for the two processes (MsMpEng.exe and
MOMHost.exe) in question:
- Working Set (The Working Set is the set of memory pages touched recently
by the threads in the process)
- Virtual Bytes (Virtual Bytes is the current size, in bytes, of the
virtual address space the process is using)
NOTE: You can also add some main process for this server. E.X: sqlservr.exe
process
d. If the indication goes very smoothly, it indicates that the memory usage
of these processes is stable. In opposition, the memory leak issue may
exist.
At the same time, on the SQL Server side, we can attempt to adjust the
memory to see if it helps. Below are the detail steps:
--
a. Open the SQL Server Management Studio
b. Right click on the SQL Server instance->choose Properties.
c. Click on the Memory tab on the left panel, adjust the memory for your
SQL Server.
Have a nice day!
Best regards,
Adams Qu
MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--
| From: "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam>
| References: <3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com>
<OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
| Subject: Re: Excessive Page Faults?
| Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:56:40 -0700
| Lines: 1
| Message-ID: <84D91F2A-E4A6-4933-B34B-72879DD28277@.microsoft.com>
| MIME-Version: 1.0
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| Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.exchange.admin,microsoft.public.security.forefront,microsof
t.public.sqlserver.server
| Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
| Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.security.forefront:71
microsoft.public.sqlserver.server:27713
microsoft.public.exchange.admin:47476
| NNTP-Posting-Host: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl 127.0.0.1
| X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
|
| Thanks for the link to the article. This does give some additional
| information, however the problem in the article points more to high CPU
| utilization rather than high number of page faults. Perhaps since this
also
| includes the MOM components, I should try posting in that forum as the
| Forefront group is fairly new?
|
| Richard
|
| "Betelgeuse" <betelgeuse@.news.postalias> wrote in message
| news:OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
| > This is not an exchange issue...
| >
| > But take a look at
| > http://geekswithblogs.net/Coleman/archive/2007/03/26/109906.aspx
| >
| >
| > "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
| > news:3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com...
| >>I am noticing that an many of my servers (Server 2003 EE SP2 R2), that
the
| >>MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are creating a significant number
of
| >>page faults.
| >>
| >> For example, on my SQL 2000 SP4 server with 4GB RAM which has been up
for
| >> 19 days has nearly 19M page faults on MsMpEng and over 16M faults on
| >> MOMHost.
| >>
| >> Another example is my Exchange 2003 SP2 with 4GB RAM which has also
been
| >> up for 19 days has nearly 182M faults on MsMpEng and nearly 16M faults
on
| >> MOMHost.
| >>
| >> Keep in mind that the "M" with the number is million.
| >>
| >> We only recently started using Forefront on our servers, and this
appears
| >> to be a relatively new issue, and I would like to know if others have
| >> been experiencing this as well.
| >>
| >> Richard
| >
| >
||||Dear Richard,
We just want to say hi and check if there is anything further we can do for
you. If there is, please don't hesitate to let us know.
Regards,
Sophie Tan, MCSE 2000
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
====================================================When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
====================================================This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
| X-Tomcat-ID: 94083421
| References: <3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com>
<OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
<84D91F2A-E4A6-4933-B34B-72879DD28277@.microsoft.com>
| MIME-Version: 1.0
| Content-Type: text/plain
| Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
| From: v-adamqu@.online.microsoft.com (Adams Qu [MSFT])
| Organization: Microsoft
| Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:35:19 GMT
| Subject: Re: Excessive Page Faults?
| X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
| Message-ID: <8LjAyJKDIHA.4664@.TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl>
| Newsgroups: microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
| Lines: 132
| Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
| Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.sqlserver.server:27758
| NNTP-Posting-Host: tomcatimport2.phx.gbl 10.201.218.182
|
| Dear Richard,
|
| Thank you for posting here.
|
| I understand that the process MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are
| creating a significant number of page faults on several servers.
|
| According to your description, it appears that the issue should not on
the
| SQL Server side. Based on my experience, this behavior can occur due to a
| Memory Leak but sometimes it is normal for some processes. In order to
| ensure the current status, I would like to confirm the following
| information before going further:
|
| 1. Has the performance on these severs been affected due to this issue?
|
| 2. Please also use the Performance Monitor utility to monitor the
stability
| of memory pages used by these two processes.
|
| To do so, please refer to the following steps:
| --
| a. Enter the Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Performance.
| b. Select "Process" in the "Performance object" selection
| c. Add the following counter for the two processes (MsMpEng.exe and
| MOMHost.exe) in question:
|
| - Working Set (The Working Set is the set of memory pages touched
recently
| by the threads in the process)
| - Virtual Bytes (Virtual Bytes is the current size, in bytes, of the
| virtual address space the process is using)
|
| NOTE: You can also add some main process for this server. E.X:
sqlservr.exe
| process
|
| d. If the indication goes very smoothly, it indicates that the memory
usage
| of these processes is stable. In opposition, the memory leak issue may
| exist.
|
| At the same time, on the SQL Server side, we can attempt to adjust the
| memory to see if it helps. Below are the detail steps:
| --
| a. Open the SQL Server Management Studio
| b. Right click on the SQL Server instance->choose Properties.
| c. Click on the Memory tab on the left panel, adjust the memory for your
| SQL Server.
|
| Have a nice day!
|
| Best regards,
|
| Adams Qu
| MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS
| Microsoft Online Support
|
| Microsoft Global Technical Support Center
|
| Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
| =====================================================| When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
| that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
| =====================================================| This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
|
| --
| | From: "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam>
| | References: <3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com>
| <OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
| | Subject: Re: Excessive Page Faults?
| | Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:56:40 -0700
| | Lines: 1
| | Message-ID: <84D91F2A-E4A6-4933-B34B-72879DD28277@.microsoft.com>
| | MIME-Version: 1.0
| | Content-Type: text/plain;
| | format=flowed;
| | charset="iso-8859-1";
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| | Newsgroups:
|
microsoft.public.exchange.admin,microsoft.public.security.forefront,microsof
| t.public.sqlserver.server
| | Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
| | Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.security.forefront:71
| microsoft.public.sqlserver.server:27713
| microsoft.public.exchange.admin:47476
| | NNTP-Posting-Host: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl 127.0.0.1
| | X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
| |
| | Thanks for the link to the article. This does give some additional
| | information, however the problem in the article points more to high CPU
| | utilization rather than high number of page faults. Perhaps since this
| also
| | includes the MOM components, I should try posting in that forum as the
| | Forefront group is fairly new?
| |
| | Richard
| |
| | "Betelgeuse" <betelgeuse@.news.postalias> wrote in message
| | news:OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
| | > This is not an exchange issue...
| | >
| | > But take a look at
| | > http://geekswithblogs.net/Coleman/archive/2007/03/26/109906.aspx
| | >
| | >
| | > "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
| | > news:3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com...
| | >>I am noticing that an many of my servers (Server 2003 EE SP2 R2),
that
| the
| | >>MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are creating a significant
number
| of
| | >>page faults.
| | >>
| | >> For example, on my SQL 2000 SP4 server with 4GB RAM which has been
up
| for
| | >> 19 days has nearly 19M page faults on MsMpEng and over 16M faults on
| | >> MOMHost.
| | >>
| | >> Another example is my Exchange 2003 SP2 with 4GB RAM which has also
| been
| | >> up for 19 days has nearly 182M faults on MsMpEng and nearly 16M
faults
| on
| | >> MOMHost.
| | >>
| | >> Keep in mind that the "M" with the number is million.
| | >>
| | >> We only recently started using Forefront on our servers, and this
| appears
| | >> to be a relatively new issue, and I would like to know if others
have
| | >> been experiencing this as well.
| | >>
| | >> Richard
| | >
| | >
| |
|
||||Sorry for the long delay in replying to this post. With the fires here is
SoCal, things have been fairly hectic.
Following your suggestions, I am verified that there is not a memory leak
with regards to these processes. Therefore, I am left with the simple
concern of the performance of Forefront on the Server platform. I will raise
this issue in the Forefront forums.
I do have a recurring issue with timeouts to the database that I am
troubleshooting, and it was this issue that prompted my looking at the
paging performance. I have consistently believed that the cause if these
timeouts is due to our network configuration, but for the sake of
completeness, I have been verifying our SQL setup. I will post regarding
those timeouts in another thread.
Sophie Tan, if you see this, I wanted to thank you for your follow up post
as well. At this time, I would consider this thread closed.
Richard Perry
"Adams Qu [MSFT]" <v-adamqu@.online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8LjAyJKDIHA.4664@.TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl...
> Dear Richard,
> Thank you for posting here.
> I understand that the process MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are
> creating a significant number of page faults on several servers.
> According to your description, it appears that the issue should not on the
> SQL Server side. Based on my experience, this behavior can occur due to a
> Memory Leak but sometimes it is normal for some processes. In order to
> ensure the current status, I would like to confirm the following
> information before going further:
> 1. Has the performance on these severs been affected due to this issue?
> 2. Please also use the Performance Monitor utility to monitor the
> stability
> of memory pages used by these two processes.
> To do so, please refer to the following steps:
> --
> a. Enter the Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Performance.
> b. Select "Process" in the "Performance object" selection
> c. Add the following counter for the two processes (MsMpEng.exe and
> MOMHost.exe) in question:
> - Working Set (The Working Set is the set of memory pages touched recently
> by the threads in the process)
> - Virtual Bytes (Virtual Bytes is the current size, in bytes, of the
> virtual address space the process is using)
> NOTE: You can also add some main process for this server. E.X:
> sqlservr.exe
> process
> d. If the indication goes very smoothly, it indicates that the memory
> usage
> of these processes is stable. In opposition, the memory leak issue may
> exist.
> At the same time, on the SQL Server side, we can attempt to adjust the
> memory to see if it helps. Below are the detail steps:
> --
> a. Open the SQL Server Management Studio
> b. Right click on the SQL Server instance->choose Properties.
> c. Click on the Memory tab on the left panel, adjust the memory for your
> SQL Server.
> Have a nice day!
> Best regards,
> Adams Qu
> MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS
> Microsoft Online Support
> Microsoft Global Technical Support Center
> Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
> =====================================================> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
> that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
> =====================================================> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
> --
> | From: "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam>
> | References: <3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com>
> <OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
> | Subject: Re: Excessive Page Faults?
> | Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:56:40 -0700
> | Lines: 1
> | Message-ID: <84D91F2A-E4A6-4933-B34B-72879DD28277@.microsoft.com>
> | MIME-Version: 1.0
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> | X-MS-CommunityGroup-ThreadID: 3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293
> | X-MS-CommunityGroup-ParentID: 47993B93-4F51-47EE-BE41-7DBD1C4B8AF7
> | Newsgroups:
> microsoft.public.exchange.admin,microsoft.public.security.forefront,microsof
> t.public.sqlserver.server
> | Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
> | Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.security.forefront:71
> microsoft.public.sqlserver.server:27713
> microsoft.public.exchange.admin:47476
> | NNTP-Posting-Host: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl 127.0.0.1
> | X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
> |
> | Thanks for the link to the article. This does give some additional
> | information, however the problem in the article points more to high CPU
> | utilization rather than high number of page faults. Perhaps since this
> also
> | includes the MOM components, I should try posting in that forum as the
> | Forefront group is fairly new?
> |
> | Richard
> |
> | "Betelgeuse" <betelgeuse@.news.postalias> wrote in message
> | news:OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> | > This is not an exchange issue...
> | >
> | > But take a look at
> | > http://geekswithblogs.net/Coleman/archive/2007/03/26/109906.aspx
> | >
> | >
> | > "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
> | > news:3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com...
> | >>I am noticing that an many of my servers (Server 2003 EE SP2 R2), that
> the
> | >>MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are creating a significant
> number
> of
> | >>page faults.
> | >>
> | >> For example, on my SQL 2000 SP4 server with 4GB RAM which has been up
> for
> | >> 19 days has nearly 19M page faults on MsMpEng and over 16M faults on
> | >> MOMHost.
> | >>
> | >> Another example is my Exchange 2003 SP2 with 4GB RAM which has also
> been
> | >> up for 19 days has nearly 182M faults on MsMpEng and nearly 16M
> faults
> on
> | >> MOMHost.
> | >>
> | >> Keep in mind that the "M" with the number is million.
> | >>
> | >> We only recently started using Forefront on our servers, and this
> appears
> | >> to be a relatively new issue, and I would like to know if others have
> | >> been experiencing this as well.
> | >>
> | >> Richard
> | >
> | >
> |
>|||Dear Richard,
Thank you for posting back.
From your last post, we are glad to hear that the memory leak issue does
not exist after we verified manually on the server.
I also understand that another issue with timeouts to the database is
experienced. To help you resolve the issue more efficiently, I also would
like to share with you the following troubleshooting information. You can
try the following points before submitting the new thread.
Reference Information on the second issue
--
Based on my experience, the time-out connection issue can be concluded to
be caused by one of the following two factors commonly:
a. Caused by the network configuration (as you mentioned)
b. The second cause is that the SQL Server is running on a heavy load at
that time.
c. Application or hard driver factors.
Please use SQL Profiler and Perfmon to monitor your SQL Server to see what
happens if the connection timeout occurs.
I also would like to provide the following links for your reference:
HOW TO: Troubleshoot Application Performance with SQL Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224587/en-us
Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/tsprfprb.mspx
INF: Understanding and Resolving SQL Server 7.0 or 2000 Blocking Problems
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224453/en-us
Hope above information is helpful. Once we see your new thread, we will be
glad to follow up and help you. If you have any other questions or
concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. It is always my pleasure to
be of assistance.
Have a nice day!
Best regards,
Adams Qu
MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--
| From: "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam>
| References: <3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com>
<OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
<84D91F2A-E4A6-4933-B34B-72879DD28277@.microsoft.com>
<8LjAyJKDIHA.4664@.TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl>
| Subject: Re: Excessive Page Faults?
| Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:54:13 -0700
| Lines: 2
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| X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
|
| Sorry for the long delay in replying to this post. With the fires here is
| SoCal, things have been fairly hectic.
|
| Following your suggestions, I am verified that there is not a memory leak
| with regards to these processes. Therefore, I am left with the simple
| concern of the performance of Forefront on the Server platform. I will
raise
| this issue in the Forefront forums.
|
| I do have a recurring issue with timeouts to the database that I am
| troubleshooting, and it was this issue that prompted my looking at the
| paging performance. I have consistently believed that the cause if these
| timeouts is due to our network configuration, but for the sake of
| completeness, I have been verifying our SQL setup. I will post regarding
| those timeouts in another thread.
|
| Sophie Tan, if you see this, I wanted to thank you for your follow up
post
| as well. At this time, I would consider this thread closed.
|
| Richard Perry
|
|
| "Adams Qu [MSFT]" <v-adamqu@.online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
| news:8LjAyJKDIHA.4664@.TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl...
| > Dear Richard,
| >
| > Thank you for posting here.
| >
| > I understand that the process MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are
| > creating a significant number of page faults on several servers.
| >
| > According to your description, it appears that the issue should not on
the
| > SQL Server side. Based on my experience, this behavior can occur due to
a
| > Memory Leak but sometimes it is normal for some processes. In order to
| > ensure the current status, I would like to confirm the following
| > information before going further:
| >
| > 1. Has the performance on these severs been affected due to this issue?
| >
| > 2. Please also use the Performance Monitor utility to monitor the
| > stability
| > of memory pages used by these two processes.
| >
| > To do so, please refer to the following steps:
| > --
| > a. Enter the Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Performance.
| > b. Select "Process" in the "Performance object" selection
| > c. Add the following counter for the two processes (MsMpEng.exe and
| > MOMHost.exe) in question:
| >
| > - Working Set (The Working Set is the set of memory pages touched
recently
| > by the threads in the process)
| > - Virtual Bytes (Virtual Bytes is the current size, in bytes, of the
| > virtual address space the process is using)
| >
| > NOTE: You can also add some main process for this server. E.X:
| > sqlservr.exe
| > process
| >
| > d. If the indication goes very smoothly, it indicates that the memory
| > usage
| > of these processes is stable. In opposition, the memory leak issue may
| > exist.
| >
| > At the same time, on the SQL Server side, we can attempt to adjust the
| > memory to see if it helps. Below are the detail steps:
| > --
| > a. Open the SQL Server Management Studio
| > b. Right click on the SQL Server instance->choose Properties.
| > c. Click on the Memory tab on the left panel, adjust the memory for your
| > SQL Server.
| >
| > Have a nice day!
| >
| > Best regards,
| >
| > Adams Qu
| > MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS
| > Microsoft Online Support
| >
| > Microsoft Global Technical Support Center
| >
| > Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
| > =====================================================| > When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
| > that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
| > =====================================================| > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
| > rights.
| >
| > --
| > | From: "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam>
| > | References: <3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com>
| > <OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
| > | Subject: Re: Excessive Page Faults?
| > | Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:56:40 -0700
| > | Lines: 1
| > | Message-ID: <84D91F2A-E4A6-4933-B34B-72879DD28277@.microsoft.com>
| > | MIME-Version: 1.0
| > | Content-Type: text/plain;
| > | format=flowed;
| > | charset="iso-8859-1";
| > | reply-type=response
| > | Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
| > | X-Priority: 3
| > | X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
| > | Importance: Normal
| > | X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 12.0.1365
| > | X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V12.0.1365
| > | X-MS-CommunityGroup-PostID: {84D91F2A-E4A6-4933-B34B-72879DD28277}
| > | X-MS-CommunityGroup-ThreadID: 3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293
| > | X-MS-CommunityGroup-ParentID: 47993B93-4F51-47EE-BE41-7DBD1C4B8AF7
| > | Newsgroups:
| >
microsoft.public.exchange.admin,microsoft.public.security.forefront,microsof
| > t.public.sqlserver.server
| > | Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
| > | Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.security.forefront:71
| > microsoft.public.sqlserver.server:27713
| > microsoft.public.exchange.admin:47476
| > | NNTP-Posting-Host: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl 127.0.0.1
| > | X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.sqlserver.server
| > |
| > | Thanks for the link to the article. This does give some additional
| > | information, however the problem in the article points more to high
CPU
| > | utilization rather than high number of page faults. Perhaps since this
| > also
| > | includes the MOM components, I should try posting in that forum as the
| > | Forefront group is fairly new?
| > |
| > | Richard
| > |
| > | "Betelgeuse" <betelgeuse@.news.postalias> wrote in message
| > | news:OBAYHbCDIHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
| > | > This is not an exchange issue...
| > | >
| > | > But take a look at
| > | > http://geekswithblogs.net/Coleman/archive/2007/03/26/109906.aspx
| > | >
| > | >
| > | > "Richard Perry" <RichardPerry@.newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
| > | > news:3BFD2358-2798-4A29-B54A-EA90AD883293@.microsoft.com...
| > | >>I am noticing that an many of my servers (Server 2003 EE SP2 R2),
that
| > the
| > | >>MsMpEng.exe and MOMHost.exe processes are creating a significant
| > number
| > of
| > | >>page faults.
| > | >>
| > | >> For example, on my SQL 2000 SP4 server with 4GB RAM which has been
up
| > for
| > | >> 19 days has nearly 19M page faults on MsMpEng and over 16M faults
on
| > | >> MOMHost.
| > | >>
| > | >> Another example is my Exchange 2003 SP2 with 4GB RAM which has also
| > been
| > | >> up for 19 days has nearly 182M faults on MsMpEng and nearly 16M
| > faults
| > on
| > | >> MOMHost.
| > | >>
| > | >> Keep in mind that the "M" with the number is million.
| > | >>
| > | >> We only recently started using Forefront on our servers, and this
| > appears
| > | >> to be a relatively new issue, and I would like to know if others
have
| > | >> been experiencing this as well.
| > | >>
| > | >> Richard
| > | >
| > | >
| > |
| >
|

Excessive memory usage

Hi.
my sqlservers are using 1.5 gigs of memory and
experiencing slow queries where large amount of rows are
returned. Some page swapping at the os is occurring as
well. Any ideas?
Hi -
Please check the KB Arcticle
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;110983
Some time when any relatively heavy query/process comes down... the system
starts paging because there are not enough free sectors to swap out data
Thanks
-Surajit
"KD" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:19ae701c44d63$7558ee40$a401280a@.phx.gbl...
> Hi.
> my sqlservers are using 1.5 gigs of memory and
> experiencing slow queries where large amount of rows are
> returned. Some page swapping at the os is occurring as
> well. Any ideas?

Excessive memory usage

Hi.
my sqlservers are using 1.5 gigs of memory and
experiencing slow queries where large amount of rows are
returned. Some page swapping at the os is occurring as
well. Any ideas?Hi -
Please check the KB Arcticle
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...kb;EN-US;110983
Some time when any relatively heavy query/process comes down... the system
starts paging because there are not enough free sectors to swap out data
Thanks
-Surajit
"KD" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:19ae701c44d63$7558ee40$a401280a@.phx
.gbl...
> Hi.
> my sqlservers are using 1.5 gigs of memory and
> experiencing slow queries where large amount of rows are
> returned. Some page swapping at the os is occurring as
> well. Any ideas?

Excessive memory usage

Hi.
my sqlservers are using 1.5 gigs of memory and
experiencing slow queries where large amount of rows are
returned. Some page swapping at the os is occurring as
well. Any ideas?Hi -
Please check the KB Arcticle
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;110983
Some time when any relatively heavy query/process comes down... the system
starts paging because there are not enough free sectors to swap out data
Thanks
-Surajit
"KD" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:19ae701c44d63$7558ee40$a401280a@.phx.gbl...
> Hi.
> my sqlservers are using 1.5 gigs of memory and
> experiencing slow queries where large amount of rows are
> returned. Some page swapping at the os is occurring as
> well. Any ideas?

Friday, March 9, 2012

EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION: Odd Error in Event Viewer

I have a stored procedure that I use for call a aspx page from within SQL. The stored procedure itself runs fine
with no errors but I keep getting errors in the event viewer everytime
it runs (with .vbs, .NET, .vb6 client) outside Enterprise manager or SQL Query Analyzer....

This is error:

Error: 0, Severity: 19, State: 0
SqlDumpExceptionHandler: Process 52 generated fatal exception c0000005 EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION. SQL Server is terminating this process.

I think that this is the same problem seen in

http://www.sqlmonster.com/Uwe/Forum...in-Event-Viewer

I've test with XP sp2, W2003 server, SQL 2000 sp3a.....on the same machine.

ANY SUGGESTIONS??

Thanks

--
Message posted via http://www.sqlmonster.com"Flavio 2006 via SQLMonster.com" <forum@.SQLMonster.com> wrote in message
news:713ecc4e10e34ee3baaee91a9fafe36d@.SQLMonster.c om...
>I have a stored procedure that I use for call a aspx page from within SQL.
>The stored procedure itself runs fine
> with no errors but I keep getting errors in the event viewer everytime
> it runs (with .vbs, .NET, .vb6 client) outside Enterprise manager or SQL
> Query Analyzer....
> This is error:
> Error: 0, Severity: 19, State: 0
> SqlDumpExceptionHandler: Process 52 generated fatal exception c0000005
> EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION. SQL Server is terminating this process.
>
> I think that this is the same problem seen in
> http://www.sqlmonster.com/Uwe/Forum...in-Event-Viewer
> I've test with XP sp2, W2003 server, SQL 2000 sp3a.....on the same
> machine.
>
> ANY SUGGESTIONS??
> Thanks
> --
> Message posted via http://www.sqlmonster.com

If your problem also involves the MSXML COM object, then have you checked
the KB article from the previous post? If it doesn't apply to you, then you
might want to post more details of what your procedure does, but since
exceptions are basically problems with MSSQL itself, contacting PSS would
probably be the best idea.

Simon|||Hi Simon,

the procedure is quite similar to spSendWebServiceRequest, (i mean procedure in old thread...)

I've contact M$ PSS, and I will post here the response (if exists...:))

Thanks for interest

Flavio

--
Message posted via http://www.sqlmonster.com|||Solution:

MUST install msxml4_sp2 ...

--
Message posted via http://www.sqlmonster.com

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION

Hi,
I am getting the following error when I am trying to
execute a Query through an ASP page.
SqlDumpExceptionHandler: Process 54 generated fatal
exception c0000005 EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION. SQL Server
is terminating this process.
If somebody knows anything about this, please let me
know.
Thanx,
InderMake sure you have applied all of the current Service Packs for SQL
Server... AVs are generally bugs in the product... If you can't find
anything recent on MS web site (KB article, etc) you may wish to open a call
to PSS.
"Inder" <inderpal@.expresscolour.com> wrote in message
news:06f701c37117$416a0700$a301280a@.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I am getting the following error when I am trying to
> execute a Query through an ASP page.
> SqlDumpExceptionHandler: Process 54 generated fatal
> exception c0000005 EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION. SQL Server
> is terminating this process.
> If somebody knows anything about this, please let me
> know.
> Thanx,
> Inder

Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation

I have this exception on page loading, is there any solution for this how can I fix this exception...When Are you receiving that message. Are you Using SSIS?|||Just out of curiosity, have you searched Google for your error string? A whole bunch of results are there waiting for your reading pleasure.

Looks like a .net Framework bug.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Excel Rendering Question

When a report is exported to Excel, each page in the report becomes a
worksheet. The worksheets are named as 'sheet 1', 'sheet 2' etc. Is there
any way to name the sheets as page headings?Hi Sanjay,
My grouping is exactly the same. However, I also have pagebreakatend set:
<Grouping Name="list1_Country_Name">
<GroupExpressions>
<GroupExpression>=Fields!CountryName.Value</GroupExpression>
</GroupExpressions>
<PageBreakAtEnd>true</PageBreakAtEnd>
</Grouping>
A.
"Sanjay" wrote:
> I have the following grouping element in my report:
> <Grouping Name="list2_Details_Group">
> <GroupExpressions>
> <GroupExpression>=Fields!customer_name.Value</GroupExpression>
> </GroupExpressions>
> </Grouping>
> Excel is rendered as each customer in a different sheet but I also need the
> sheet name to be =Fields!customer_name.Value.
> Andrew,
> Can you post the rdl extract where your groupings are named?
> Thanks
> Sanjay
> "Andrew Byrne" wrote:
> > I have seen this whenever I export to Excel and have my report grouped. For
> > example, if I group by country then excel will render with each sheet=a
> > country. In my case the country names were written to the Sheet Name, so
> > maybe you just need to name your groupings in the report?
> >
> > "Sanjay" wrote:
> >
> > > When a report is exported to Excel, each page in the report becomes a
> > > worksheet. The worksheets are named as 'sheet 1', 'sheet 2' etc. Is there
> > > any way to name the sheets as page headings?

Excel Render - Print Header on Each Page

Hello Microsoft or Forum Members:

This seems like a simple Microsoft Based Reporting System 101 feature...But I can not find out how to do it (among other things that seem like it should work with Microsoft rendering to Microsoft).

How do I make the SSRS 2005 Header for the Report print on each of the pages in excel once it is rendered from SSRS?

All I want is an answer by MSFT that says "YES" it can be done and how or "No" it is not currently available.

I noticed I am not the only one with this type of simple question:

(see this unanswered post)

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1281464&SiteID=1

Thank You guys!

goodguy1974 wrote:

"No" it is not currently available.

I believe that would be the answer. It seems to me that the Excel export renders only the content of the report, not so much the layout of the page. A page rendered in an internet browser is not quite the same as a page rendered in excel.

|||

Thank you...

I wish you had a MSFT after your name so I could tell my boss that Microsoft says it can't be done with this version....

Still hoping...

Thanks Again!

|||

How many pages are your reports?

|||

The reports range from 14-200 pages...

Excel Pivot Table

When I use Excel 2002 Sp3 to connect to the AS2000. I can select multiple value in the Page field. But when I install the OLAP AS 9.0 provider to connect to the AS2005. The multiple value selection is disapper. How can I fix this?There is a 'select multiple items' checkbox in the bottom area of the dropdown box.

If this is not visible - I'd almost think that your Excel platform at that specific time is Excel 2000.
Try recreating your pivot table from the as2005 cube|||I am using Excel 2002. It is funny sometime the muti value check box appear, sometime it disappear. I also try to reinstall the Excel, but it doesn't help|||

Did you upgrade MSXML to 6.0 as well as upgrading the AS Provider ?

Must say I don't get this behaviour in 2003 having added both the upgrades

|||Yes MSXML 6.0 Parser and MS OLAP Provide For AS 9.0 have been installed in my computer. Now I find the tempoary solution. If I run another application such as IE6 to overlap the Excel, then I can see the multi value check box. It is really @.$%...?|||

It's good that you're getting somewhere!

I remember that in some cases, I've had to have MDAC 2.8 installed if it wasn't already present. You shouldn't be getting that far in excel w/o it, but it's worth a try.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&FamilyID=6c050fe3-c795-4b7d-b037-185d0506396c

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Excel page setup / Email subscriptions

Hi,
I'm a newbie when it comes to Reporting Services, so please bear with me.
I am having 2 issues:
1) I am trying to get an exported Excel report to automatically select the
correct paper size. I have a report that is fairly wide, so I set the
report page up to 14" x 8.5" (Legal) and set the margins to .25" on each
side. Based on the limited info online, I was hoping this would translate
into Excel's Page Setup, but I was wrong. When I open the resulting Excel
workbook, the pages are set up as Landscape (which I hoped would happen),
but they are still Letter (11" x 8.5") sized. Is there any way to force
Excel to include Legal in the page setup?
2) I set up several Windows users with the role "Browsers" in Reporting
Services. I want them to be able to subscribe to a report via email. When
the user creates a new subscription, the "To" field is disabled, and is
populated only with their Windows username (ie, "jmarx"). The email
generated by the system fails (I think) due to not being able to resolve the
username into an email address. The server being used to send the emails is
Exchange 2000, and everything is integrated with Active Directory. If I go
to the Reporting Services site (I have all permissions on the site), I can
set up a new subscription with no problems, as the To, Cc, and Bcc fields
are all enabled and I can type in the full email address(es) as needed. The
email(s) get sent with no issues that way. Any ideas on how to map the
usernames to email addresses, thus allowing users with only "Browser" access
to subscribe to reports?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
--
Regards,
Jake Marx
MS MVP - Excel
www.longhead.com
[please keep replies in the newsgroup - email address unmonitored]Jake,
I have the same problem. When a user (with "browser" privledges)
subscribes to a report, only their "username" show up in the TO: box
for email and it is greyed out so they can't change it. Hopefully,
someone from Microsoft is monitoring this board and will provide a
solution...
Pete|||Hi Pete,
hradecky wrote:
> I have the same problem. When a user (with "browser" privledges)
> subscribes to a report, only their "username" show up in the TO: box
> for email and it is greyed out so they can't change it. Hopefully,
> someone from Microsoft is monitoring this board and will provide a
> solution...
I finally figured that one out from searching google groups, but I'm not
entirely happy with the answer. You can enable this field by changing the
following in your RSReportServer.config file:
<SendEmailToUserAlias>True</SendEmailToUserAlias>
to
<SendEmailToUserAlias>False</SendEmailToUserAlias>
I believe you can set <DefaultHostName> to the hostname (ie, microsoft.com),
and that will be appended to all users' aliases. So if all your users are
in the same domain for email purposes, you could leave
<SendEmailToUserAlias> at True and enter your hostname in <DefaultHostName>.
Unfortunately for me, I have users in 2 domains, so this won't work. I
would really like to know how to map user aliases to email addresses, but I
haven't had the time to figure it out yet (or if it can even be done).
Changing <SendEmailToUserAlias> to False gives me an interim solution
anyway.
Regards,
Jake Marx
MS MVP - Excel
www.longhead.com
[please keep replies in the newsgroup - email address unmonitored]|||Did you ever find your answer to your printing question? We're having
the same sort of problem.
"Jake Marx" <msnews@.longhead.com> wrote in message news:<urY4CcemEHA.1908@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl>...
> Hi Pete,
> hradecky wrote:
> > I have the same problem. When a user (with "browser" privledges)
> > subscribes to a report, only their "username" show up in the TO: box
> > for email and it is greyed out so they can't change it. Hopefully,
> > someone from Microsoft is monitoring this board and will provide a
> > solution...
> I finally figured that one out from searching google groups, but I'm not
> entirely happy with the answer. You can enable this field by changing the
> following in your RSReportServer.config file:
> <SendEmailToUserAlias>True</SendEmailToUserAlias>
> to
> <SendEmailToUserAlias>False</SendEmailToUserAlias>
> I believe you can set <DefaultHostName> to the hostname (ie, microsoft.com),
> and that will be appended to all users' aliases. So if all your users are
> in the same domain for email purposes, you could leave
> <SendEmailToUserAlias> at True and enter your hostname in <DefaultHostName>.
> Unfortunately for me, I have users in 2 domains, so this won't work. I
> would really like to know how to map user aliases to email addresses, but I
> haven't had the time to figure it out yet (or if it can even be done).
> Changing <SendEmailToUserAlias> to False gives me an interim solution
> anyway.|||Did you ever find your answer to your printing question? We're having
the same sort of problem.
"Jake Marx" <msnews@.longhead.com> wrote in message news:<urY4CcemEHA.1908@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl>...
> Hi Pete,
> hradecky wrote:
> > I have the same problem. When a user (with "browser" privledges)
> > subscribes to a report, only their "username" show up in the TO: box
> > for email and it is greyed out so they can't change it. Hopefully,
> > someone from Microsoft is monitoring this board and will provide a
> > solution...
> I finally figured that one out from searching google groups, but I'm not
> entirely happy with the answer. You can enable this field by changing the
> following in your RSReportServer.config file:
> <SendEmailToUserAlias>True</SendEmailToUserAlias>
> to
> <SendEmailToUserAlias>False</SendEmailToUserAlias>
> I believe you can set <DefaultHostName> to the hostname (ie, microsoft.com),
> and that will be appended to all users' aliases. So if all your users are
> in the same domain for email purposes, you could leave
> <SendEmailToUserAlias> at True and enter your hostname in <DefaultHostName>.
> Unfortunately for me, I have users in 2 domains, so this won't work. I
> would really like to know how to map user aliases to email addresses, but I
> haven't had the time to figure it out yet (or if it can even be done).
> Changing <SendEmailToUserAlias> to False gives me an interim solution
> anyway.

Excel Margins

Hello
Now with SP2 the page margins works fine. Exists a method to set the Footer
and Header margin in the Excel Rendering Extension?
Thanks...Hello Trace,
Can you pls share how the page margin works for excel. I want to define L/R
margin as 0.2 in but excel takes its default settings for .75 inche. What
setting do we need to make change for making it work on Excel with our page
margin.
Thanks in advance
Jasvinder
"Trace" wrote:
> Hello
> Now with SP2 the page margins works fine. Exists a method to set the Footer
> and Header margin in the Excel Rendering Extension?
> Thanks...|||Hello Jasvinder
I set the Margins with the Properties of the Report, but i set to 0.2cm. In
the Page preview of the Excel document the Margins are set to 0.2.
When i set the Margins to 0.2in then the Page preview display 0.5.
"Jasvinder" wrote:
> Hello Trace,
> Can you pls share how the page margin works for excel. I want to define L/R
> margin as 0.2 in but excel takes its default settings for .75 inche. What
> setting do we need to make change for making it work on Excel with our page
> margin.
> Thanks in advance
> Jasvinder
>
> "Trace" wrote:
> > Hello
> >
> > Now with SP2 the page margins works fine. Exists a method to set the Footer
> > and Header margin in the Excel Rendering Extension?
> >
> > Thanks...

Excel headers - using SimplePageHeaders deviceinfo setting

I want to try out placing the report header in the Excel page header instead of the worksheet. I have seen forum references to updating the config files to switch on SimplePageHeaders deviceinfo setting, but I can find no reference to this in the documentation and it appears to be ignored when I try it out. Is this in RS 2005 only? (I'm using 2000 SP2).

Would this get round my current problem of having lots of additional columns/merged cells to accommodate all the header layout when exported to Excel? Ideally I want the data structure in Excel to be a straight forward matrix of the data values in the report table which isn't feasible when exported to Excel with our default headers which contains a lot of labels containing context information.

I am pretty sure this is new in 2005. and yes, it would help you get past your merged cell problem.

Excel headers - using SimplePageHeaders deviceinfo setting

I want to try out placing the report header in the Excel page header instead of the worksheet. I have seen forum references to updating the config files to switch on SimplePageHeaders deviceinfo setting, but I can find no reference to this in the documentation and it appears to be ignored when I try it out. Is this in RS 2005 only? (I'm using 2000 SP2).

Would this get round my current problem of having lots of additional columns/merged cells to accommodate all the header layout when exported to Excel? Ideally I want the data structure in Excel to be a straight forward matrix of the data values in the report table which isn't feasible when exported to Excel with our default headers which contains a lot of labels containing context information.

I am pretty sure this is new in 2005. and yes, it would help you get past your merged cell problem.