Memory usage on Server 2008 keeps increasing without showing what is using the RAM

I have the following server

Windows Storage Server 2008 x64 SP2 Xeon L5520 @ 2.27 12GB RAM DAS MD1000i running RAID10 15k SAS drives.

It is running DFS as a file server for ~100 users

Memory usage on this server keeps increasing without showing what is using the RAM in process explorer and taskmanager.

I have private bytes and working set columns showing

Over the span of a week (starting at around 3GB used) the RAM usage gets to the point where the system no longer has enough resources and no longer responds.

Process Explorer currently shows physical usage at 80%, but I can only account for ~2GB of RAM being used.

I've mostly used Server 2003 in the past and starting to use 2008, am I missing something here?

Thanks.

Solution 1:

Boardcom NIC teaming using BACS was causing this to happen. Switched to teaming Intels and issue was resolved.

Solution 2:

It sounds like you might have a memory leak in the Kernel Memory Pools, either the paged or nonpaged pools, most likely caused by a driver. These types of memory leaks won't show up in Process Explorer or Task Manager, though you can use Process Explorer to show the Kernel Memory usage of the paged and nonpaged pools as a guide.

Have a read of the following as a guide to understanding and identifying what might be happening:

• A great article by Tate an escalation engineer at Microsoft Understanding Pool Consumption and Event ID: 2020 or 2019.
• Have a read of the Mark Russinovich article on Pushing the Limits of Windows: Paged and Nonpaged Pool especially the section on Tracking Pool Leaks.
• Blog post by Ricardo Vicente on Understanding and troubleshooting Memory Leaks With SysInternals which is more accessible than Mark Russinovich's article.

The gist of these is use to PoolMon from the Windows Driver Kit to try and pinpoint what is causing the leak. The following Microsft KB How to use Memory Pool Monitor (Poolmon.exe) to troubleshoot kernel mode memory leaks will walk you through how to use PoolMon.

Solution 3:

I would start with An Overview of Troubleshooting Memory Issues. Take some Perfmon logs and analyze them, it should be non-page pool issue and you can then follow the article Part 1 and Part 2

Solution 4:

Have you applied any updates to Windows Storage Server 2008 beyond SP2?

There are a couple of known memory leaks that are fixed in update 1 - see Known Issues and Updates for Windows Storage Server 2008 for more info.