Memory Troubles

Question

Hi all,

I am new using Solarwinds. I have been using it since February, and the Server was already running and given to me without any help, and without previous knowledge.

The thing is that since the last 3 months, the server has shutdown 3 times because of memory troubles. As I can see, I have 4 GB in BIOS but the Windows 2003 takes only 3,5GB. That is something quite normal. This are the solutions I see:

1.- Put 8 GB in the server so that the Windows takes 4 GB (I have tested it in the Backup machine and the BIOS accepts 8GB but windows takes 4GB). Does anyone think it could be a long term solution just improving 0,5GB of memory?

2.- Changing the OS to a 64 bits Windows so that it can reach 8GB of memory. But, does anyone know if the OPM 9.1 can handle 64 bit OS? As far as I know the OPM 10 can, but I have been unable to find out if the OPM 9.1 does.

I would be very glad for help.

Regards,

Pablo Keller

smargh · Answer

What's using all the memory? IIS? One of the Orion services?

How many elements is Orion monitoring?

pablokeller · Answer

Dear smargh,

It is paging, with the memory on 100% the whole time.

Regards,

Pablo

smargh · Answer

It would work fine on a 64bit OS.

However, you must narrow down the cause of the excessive memory usage. If it is running out of paged or non-paged pool memory, then that's normally a problem with a buggy driver. Check for updated drivers, NIC firmware or BIOS upgrades etc.

A server shutting itself down could perhaps be a sign that it is powering off to protect itself from high server room temperatures. Check the event logs on the server.

Also note that Express versions of SQL Server have a hard-coded database size and memory usage limit.