Another reason this list rocks, sometimes sending mail here helps one fix it themselves.
From: James Rankin [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 7:08 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Mysterious memory issue Never mind. I found the difference just as soon as I hit Send :-( Someone has drastically increased the paging file size on my over-performing server On 30 September 2011 15:02, James Rankin <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I have a farm of thirty XenApp servers. They all are clones, running the same applications and desktops, same patch levels, same GPOs, everything. However - one server consistently displays significantly lower memory usage than the rest. All the other servers peak at about 85% usage with around sixty users. This one server has the same amount of users and rarely goes above 60% utilization. And there is absolutely nothing different I can find about this particular box. At first I thought it was just a coincidence, that it had a percentage of low-stress users on it, but it shows the same behaviour every single day. I'd really like to know what's causing it. It's almost as if someone had enabled some sort of memory trimming on it (via a registry key or tick box somewhere) and forgot to document the fact. Citrix's native memory optimization is enabled for all servers in the OU, and turning it off made no difference, so I've ruled that out as a factor. We also have memory optimization and process memory trimming through AppSense Performance Manager but again this is a global thing affecting all the servers, and we have ruled it out as a cause by turning that off also. Are there any native Windows memory trimming/optimization options that someone might have enabled locally on the box (this is Windows 2008 R2)? I'd be really grateful if anyone has any pointers to some form of memory trimming or optimization feature that can be enabled in some way, as if I've got one server running with 25% less memory overhead than the rest, I'd really like to enable it on all the other servers in the farm. This whole thing is currently being used as ammo for an improved change control process, so some good may come of it, but I'm really keen to find out what could possibly have been altered. TIA, JRR -- "On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ***** IMPORTANT INFORMATION/DISCLAIMER ***** This document should be read only by those persons to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message it was obviously addressed to you and therefore you can read it, even it we didn't mean to send it to you. However, if the contents of this email make no sense whatsoever then you probably were not the intended recipient, or, alternatively, you are a mindless cretin; either way, you should immediately kill yourself and destroy your computer (not necessarily in that order). Once you have taken this action, please contact us.. no, sorry, you can't use your computer, because you just destroyed it, and possibly also committed suicide afterwards, but I am starting to digress...... The originator of this email is not liable for the transmission of the information contained in this communication. Or are they? Either way it's a pretty dull legal query and frankly one I'm not going to dwell on. But should you have nothing better to do, please feel free to ruminate on it, and please pass on any concrete conclusions should you find them. However, if you pass them on via email, be sure to include a disclaimer regarding liability for transmission. In the event that the originator did not send this email to you, then please return it to us and attach a scanned-in picture of your mother's brother's wife wearing nothing but a kangaroo suit, and we will immediately refund you exactly half of what you paid for the can of Whiskas you bought when you went to Pets At Home yesterday. We take no responsibility for non-receipt of this email because we are running Exchange 5.5 and everyone knows how glitchy that can be. In the event that you do get this message then please note that we take no responsibility for that either. Nor will we accept any liability, tacit or implied, for any damage you may or may not incur as a result of receiving, or not, as the case may be, from time to time, notwithstanding all liabilities implied or otherwise, ummm, hell, where was I...umm, no matter what happens, it is NOT, and NEVER WILL BE, OUR FAULT! The comments and opinions expressed herein are my own and NOT those of my employer, who, if he knew I was sending emails and surfing the seamier side of the Internet, would cut off my manhood and feed it to me for afternoon tea. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin -- "On two occasions...I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ***** IMPORTANT INFORMATION/DISCLAIMER ***** This document should be read only by those persons to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message it was obviously addressed to you and therefore you can read it, even it we didn't mean to send it to you. However, if the contents of this email make no sense whatsoever then you probably were not the intended recipient, or, alternatively, you are a mindless cretin; either way, you should immediately kill yourself and destroy your computer (not necessarily in that order). Once you have taken this action, please contact us.. no, sorry, you can't use your computer, because you just destroyed it, and possibly also committed suicide afterwards, but I am starting to digress...... The originator of this email is not liable for the transmission of the information contained in this communication. Or are they? Either way it's a pretty dull legal query and frankly one I'm not going to dwell on. But should you have nothing better to do, please feel free to ruminate on it, and please pass on any concrete conclusions should you find them. However, if you pass them on via email, be sure to include a disclaimer regarding liability for transmission. In the event that the originator did not send this email to you, then please return it to us and attach a scanned-in picture of your mother's brother's wife wearing nothing but a kangaroo suit, and we will immediately refund you exactly half of what you paid for the can of Whiskas you bought when you went to Pets At Home yesterday. We take no responsibility for non-receipt of this email because we are running Exchange 5.5 and everyone knows how glitchy that can be. In the event that you do get this message then please note that we take no responsibility for that either. Nor will we accept any liability, tacit or implied, for any damage you may or may not incur as a result of receiving, or not, as the case may be, from time to time, notwithstanding all liabilities implied or otherwise, ummm, hell, where was I...umm, no matter what happens, it is NOT, and NEVER WILL BE, OUR FAULT! The comments and opinions expressed herein are my own and NOT those of my employer, who, if he knew I was sending emails and surfing the seamier side of the Internet, would cut off my manhood and feed it to me for afternoon tea. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
