How to identify runaway process / memory leak

[Guest Brian]

I have an SBS2000 server that pretty much hangs after about 10 days of

running because it runs out of nonpaged pool space. It has been running fine

for about 5 years, and this started perhaps two months back. The first time,

I thought it was just an anomaly, but there has turned out to be a consistent

memory leak. Through PerfMon, I have identified the fact that both the

nonpaged bytes & the handle count steadily rise after a reboot but cannot

easily identify which process is responsible.

 

All the documentation I have seen seems to require me to have a suspect

process before I can determine whether it is, indeed, the problem. However,

how can I identify the runaway process if I have no idea which one is at

fault?

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: How to identify runaway process / memory leak

 

 

"Brian" <Brian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:FF20F3EE-0D2C-4B6C-B3A2-7C56A073C077@microsoft.com...

>I have an SBS2000 server that pretty much hangs after about 10 days of

> running because it runs out of nonpaged pool space. It has been running

> fine

> for about 5 years, and this started perhaps two months back. The first

> time,

> I thought it was just an anomaly, but there has turned out to be a

> consistent

> memory leak. Through PerfMon, I have identified the fact that both the

> nonpaged bytes & the handle count steadily rise after a reboot but cannot

> easily identify which process is responsible.

>

> All the documentation I have seen seems to require me to have a suspect

> process before I can determine whether it is, indeed, the problem.

> However,

> how can I identify the runaway process if I have no idea which one is at

> fault?

 

Watch the Task Manager. It will tell you which process consumes

ever increasing amounts of memory.

[Guest Brian]

Re: How to identify runaway process / memory leak

 

It creeps up so slowly (over days, not minutes) that it is difficult to get a

visual baseline on that. Is there any simple way to capture/export the task

manager data to a flat/delimited file so that I can compare side-by-side

after an 8-hour or 36-hour period?

 

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>

> "Brian" <Brian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:FF20F3EE-0D2C-4B6C-B3A2-7C56A073C077@microsoft.com...

> >I have an SBS2000 server that pretty much hangs after about 10 days of

> > running because it runs out of nonpaged pool space. It has been running

> > fine

> > for about 5 years, and this started perhaps two months back. The first

> > time,

> > I thought it was just an anomaly, but there has turned out to be a

> > consistent

> > memory leak. Through PerfMon, I have identified the fact that both the

> > nonpaged bytes & the handle count steadily rise after a reboot but cannot

> > easily identify which process is responsible.

> >

> > All the documentation I have seen seems to require me to have a suspect

> > process before I can determine whether it is, indeed, the problem.

> > However,

> > how can I identify the runaway process if I have no idea which one is at

> > fault?

>

> Watch the Task Manager. It will tell you which process consumes

> ever increasing amounts of memory.

>

>

>

[Guest John John]

Re: How to identify runaway process / memory leak

 

In Perfmon you can monitor the Non Paged Pool on the Processes

themselves. Select the processes that you want to monitor and then set

a log on them. Select to to log to a csv file and you will be able to

view the results in a spreadsheet, at a glance you will be able to see

which process is increasingly using the Non Paged Pool. The log

interval is set a 1 second by default, you should change that so that it

creates more manageable log files, the log could be set to log the

values every 5 minutes or so.

 

John

 

Brian wrote:

> It creeps up so slowly (over days, not minutes) that it is difficult to get a

> visual baseline on that. Is there any simple way to capture/export the task

> manager data to a flat/delimited file so that I can compare side-by-side

> after an 8-hour or 36-hour period?

>

> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>

>

>>"Brian" <Brian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>>news:FF20F3EE-0D2C-4B6C-B3A2-7C56A073C077@microsoft.com...

>>

>>>I have an SBS2000 server that pretty much hangs after about 10 days of

>>>running because it runs out of nonpaged pool space. It has been running

>>>fine

>>>for about 5 years, and this started perhaps two months back. The first

>>>time,

>>>I thought it was just an anomaly, but there has turned out to be a

>>>consistent

>>>memory leak. Through PerfMon, I have identified the fact that both the

>>>nonpaged bytes & the handle count steadily rise after a reboot but cannot

>>>easily identify which process is responsible.

>>>

>>>All the documentation I have seen seems to require me to have a suspect

>>>process before I can determine whether it is, indeed, the problem.

>>>However,

>>>how can I identify the runaway process if I have no idea which one is at

>>>fault?

>>

>>Watch the Task Manager. It will tell you which process consumes

>>ever increasing amounts of memory.

>>

>>

>>