SBS 2011 - Is Store.exe High Memory Usage Normal?

We have a SBS 2011 server with 16GB memory that runs Exchange, WSUS and File Sharing for approx 20 users. The server also gives 2GB memory to a virtual machine running in Hyper-V so 14GB left for the rest.

When the server first boots Store.exe consumes about 500MB memory, WSUS and IIS consume some as well, but we generally are only at 60% capacity. During the course of the working day Store.exe consumes 8GB memory and the server sits at approx 97% capacity.

This makes using the server very slow, logging on via RDP is slow, general server admin is slowed down.

Is this normal? I have read that Exchange will consume lots of memory that it does not neccessarily need and then releases it back to other applications that need it. I have also checked that all mailboxes are opened in cached mode. We do have some external uses who connect via Outlook Anywhere or OWA.

If it's deemed to be "normal" is there some way I can restrict it using ALL available memory and leave a little bit for SBS to use for server admin? I have seen some articles regarding setting a high and low memory flag but rumours that this does not work with update rollup 5 which we have installed.

Am I expecting a single server to do to much with only 14GB memory?

Thanks

Solution 1:

Check if the database cache is taking up the memory (and not releasing it for some reason) using the perfmon Exchange "Database cache size" counter. If so, try limiting the cache sizes by setting msExchESEParamCacheSizeMin/msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax values in the InformationStore Active Directory object's properties as described in this blog.

If it is not the IS cache, it might be a memory leak. In this case, you can restart the information store periodically as a workaround and open a case with Microsoft product support - if it turns out to be a problem with the product itself, no fee will be charged.

You should also take a look at the minimum and recommended memory configurations for Exchange 2010.