We have a mixed Windows 7 x64 and Windows XP x86 environment. Win 7 have 4GB RAM and are SP1. Win XP have 2GB RAM and SP3.
They share a folder "Scans" for scanned documents sent from network multifunction printers
On these PCs run SAP B1 Client, Outlook 2007, Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 RU6.
Win 7 PCs, randomly, show event 2017. The exact message is "The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the server reached the configured limit for nonpaged pool allocations.". The multifunction printers are not able to send scanned documents on the shares.
The computer was using 110-130 MB of nonpaged memory at the time of the event. The driver with higher usage of non paged memory pool is the intel storage driver (iastore.sys) with 30MB (I use Poolmon). The Non Paged Pool limit showed by Process Explorer is
about 3GB.
Reading Mark Russinovich’s Pushing the Limits of Windows: Paged and Nonpaged Pool it appears the Windows memory manager statically set nonpaged limit to 75% of RAM (3GB in fact). We assume the configured limit referred to in event 2017 is set by the LanmanServer.
So which limit am I reaching on these clients? Allocations or what else? And how can I see the allocation limit and which process/driver is reaching that limit?
Repeating the above scenario only using an WindowsXP SP3 (32 bits) computer with 2GB RAM , with same applications installed on them as on Win 7 clients, does not cause event 2017 or any other problems.
We have obviously seen articles that suggest to change the registry settings:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size
By putting the second one to "3" the event does not show any more.
We find these changes to lack detailed documentation. What I have understood is:
•The LargeSystemCache variable appears to impact on the size of the file system cache. We do not understand how this would improve our test case.
•The Size variable is associated to four different "profiles" but there is not description of what these "profiles" actually mean. How do we know whether to select "Minimize memory used" or "Balance" or "Maximize
data throughput for file sharing" or "Maximize data throughput for network applications" without knowing more about them. We assume each setting has a pros and cons. We assume each setting can impact on the how the operating system and other
application work.
I wonder, morevoer, if it is to be considered as "normal" and by design that a 64 bit OS that shares one folder needs registry tweaks to funcion properly. Or it is not normal and I need to further investigate on this issue?
We would appreciate some input and addressing on this topic.
Cheers
Francesco
