page file grows (64-bit)

Our Page file seems to be growing out of control.

We have a SQL Server 2000 64-bit on an Itanium system w/ 8 GB of RAM.
when we start/re-start the service, the page file is a reasonable size
(1 to 1.5 times RAM).  After this the page file grows by 0.25 GB per
hour.  PerfMon says that  SqlServer:MemoryMana
ger - TotalServerMemory
continues to shrink, and task manager says the MemUsage shrinks, but
not to the same degree.  Right now the VM size is 27.7 GB.  The server
gets hit pretty hard with an average of 300 batch requests/sec
(max=1000/sec).

There are two other programs that run on the server -- one supply chain
management software (Adexa) that analyzes our production data, and one
program that moves data from our manufacturing databases to this server
and vice-versa.  I think they're in C++ or VB.

I'd be grateful for any advice anyone has.
bryan

<r.bryan.kane@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1112283384.234405.179340@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Our Page file seems to be growing out of control.
>
> We have a SQL Server 2000 64-bit on an Itanium system w/ 8 GB of RAM.
> when we start/re-start the service, the page file is a reasonable size
> (1 to 1.5 times RAM).  After this the page file grows by 0.25 GB per
> hour.  PerfMon says that  SqlServer:MemoryMana
ger - TotalServerMemory
> continues to shrink, and task manager says the MemUsage shrinks, but
> not to the same degree.  Right now the VM size is 27.7 GB.  The server
> gets hit pretty hard with an average of 300 batch requests/sec
> (max=1000/sec).
>
> There are two other programs that run on the server -- one supply chain
> management software (Adexa) that analyzes our production data, and one
> program that moves data from our manufacturing databases to this server
> and vice-versa.  I think they're in C++ or VB.
>
> I'd be grateful for any advice anyone has.
> bryan
>

Which process is using all the memory?

If using Taks Manager, don't look aat Mem Usage, look at Virtual Memory Size
(add it from view/columns).

David

SQL Server is designed to not use the OS pagefile.  If you are running apps
other than SQL Server onthe box they are most likely the culprits.  It's
never a good idea to share a box with apps other than sql server for peak
performance. The fact that SQL Servers total memory is shrinking is a big
clue that one of the other apps is requesting a bunch of memory and SQL
Server is attempting to give some back.  But it will not be from the swap
file, it will be physical ram.

--
Andrew J. Kelly  SQL MVP


<r.bryan.kane@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1112283384.234405.179340@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Our Page file seems to be growing out of control.
>
> We have a SQL Server 2000 64-bit on an Itanium system w/ 8 GB of RAM.
> when we start/re-start the service, the page file is a reasonable size
> (1 to 1.5 times RAM).  After this the page file grows by 0.25 GB per
> hour.  PerfMon says that  SqlServer:MemoryMana
ger - TotalServerMemory
> continues to shrink, and task manager says the MemUsage shrinks, but
> not to the same degree.  Right now the VM size is 27.7 GB.  The server
> gets hit pretty hard with an average of 300 batch requests/sec
> (max=1000/sec).
>
> There are two other programs that run on the server -- one supply chain
> management software (Adexa) that analyzes our production data, and one
> program that moves data from our manufacturing databases to this server
> and vice-versa.  I think they're in C++ or VB.
>
> I'd be grateful for any advice anyone has.
> bryan
>

sqlservr.exe.has most of it.

2.5 GB Mem Usage
7.0 GB Peak Mem Usage
27.7 GB VM Size

the second-highest VM size is 25 MB

bryan

Thanks for your helpful input.  I did some further investigation and
narrowed it down to one specific job that runs every 15 minutes.  the
graph of SQL Server's PF size looks like a staircase.

we're going to try to test this by moving the job to run on a different
server.

bryan