SBSMonitoring/SQL Memory allocation error (run away Memory usage)

SBSMonitoring MSDE has sprung a memory leak or something within the last
week.
The dang thing is blimping over a Gig of RAM, if I restart it, she returns
to normal, 30 megs, for a few hours then starts growing rapidly.
The server has all the latest patches, SBS SP1,Windows2003 SP1, SQL MSDE
SP4, SQL2000 Std edition SP4, Exchange2003 SP1.
Any ideas what is causing this and how to fix it, besides stopping and
restarting the service?
Thanks

Hi,

Thanks for posting here!

For your description, I understand that your concern is that if there is a
memory leak issue when the MSSQL$SBSMONITORING service run. If I am off
base, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Based on my research most cases, this is a normal behavior. Since SBS 2003
server is an integrated product, some services such as Exchange Information
store, ISA web proxy service or SQL Server will normally use large memory.

1. SQL Server is designed to use memory. It caches data and query plans to
memory so that it will be able to quickly access data. All relational
database management systems do this. Unless you are experiencing problems
because of the high memory usage from SQL Server, I would not worry.

When you start SQL Server, SQL Server memory usage may continue to steadily
increase and not decrease, even when activity on the server is low.
Additionally, the Task Manager and Performance Monitor may show that the
physical memory available on the computer is steadily decreasing until the
available memory is between 4 to 10 MB.

This behavior alone does not indicate a memory leak. This behavior is
normal and is an intended behavior of the SQL Server buffer pool.

By default, SQL Server dynamically grows and shrinks the size of its buffer
pool (cache) depending on the physical memory load reported by the
operating system. As long as enough memory is available to prevent paging
(between 4 - 10 MB), the SQL Server buffer pool will continue to grow. As
other processes on the same computer as SQL Server allocate memory, the SQL
Server buffer manager will release memory as needed. SQL Server can free
and acquire several megabytes of memory each second, allowing it to quickly
adjust to memory allocation changes.

For more information, please see the article below:

321363 INF: SQL Server Memory Usage
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=321363

2. However, we can use max server memory to prevent SQL Server from using
more that the specified amount of memory (we can also use min server memory
to guarantee a minimum amount of memory to an instance of SQL Server). To
do so, open a command prompt and run the following command:

osql -E -S sbsserver\<instance name>

You will enter the osql command prompt. Run the commends below (replace
<xxx> with the amount of memory):

1> EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
2> reconfigure
3> go

1> EXEC sp_configure 'min server memory', <xxx>
2> reconfigure
3> go

1> EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory', <xxx>
2> reconfigure
3> go

After doing the above steps, you may run the commands to check the
configured memory usage:

1> EXEC sp_configure
2> go

Hope this helps. Try to test to see if thing turn to be better.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further concerns or
questions regarding the issue. I am looking forward to your reply!

Have a nice day!

Best Regards,

Jenny Wu
Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
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--------------------
>Reply-To: "David Gill" <dgill@gillconsulting.net>
>From: "David Gill" <dgill@gillconsulting.net>
>Subject: SBSMonitoring/SQL Memory allocation error (run away Memory usage)
>Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:29:43 -0400
>Lines: 11
>Organization: Gill Consulting, LLC
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>
>SBSMonitoring MSDE has sprung a memory leak or something within the last
>week.
>The dang thing is blimping over a Gig of RAM, if I restart it, she returns
>to normal, 30 megs, for a few hours then starts growing rapidly.
>The server has all the latest patches, SBS SP1,Windows2003 SP1, SQL MSDE
>SP4, SQL2000 Std edition SP4, Exchange2003 SP1.
>Any ideas what is causing this and how to fix it, besides stopping and
>restarting the service?
>Thanks
>
>
>