The memory cache on windows eat all the RAM

SYMPTOMS

You experience performance issues in applications and services in various versions of Windows XP, of Windows Vista, of Windows Server 2003, and of Windows Server 2008. Additionally, you notice the following symptoms:

Available memory is almost exhausted.

The system file cache consumes most of the physical RAM.

There is a continuous and high volume of cached read requests to the hard disk.

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CAUSE

Memory management in Microsoft Windows operating systems uses a demand-based algorithm. If any process requests and uses a large amount of memory, the size of the working set (the number of memory pages in the physical RAM) of the process increases. If these requests are continuous and unchecked, the working set of the process will grow to consume all the physical RAM. In this situation, the working sets for all the other processes are paged out to the hard disk. This behavior decreases the performance of applications and services because the memory pages are continuously written to the hard disk and read from the hard disk.

This behavior also applies to the working set of the system file cache. If there is a continuous and high volume of cached read requests from any process or from any driver, the working set size of the system file cache will grow to meet this demand. The system file cache consumes the physical RAM. Therefore, sufficient amounts of physical RAM are not available for other processes.

On 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems earlier than Windows Vista, the working sets of the system file cache have a theoretical memory limit of less than1 GB. The limitation of the virtual address range prevents the working sets of the system file cache from exhausting the physical RAM.

On 32-bit versions of Windows Vista operating systems, kernel resources are allocated dynamically. The working set of the system file cache increases to consume the virtual address range of the kernel mode at the expense of other kernel resources. The limitation of this memory range is less than 2 GB. If the computer has more than 2 GB of physical RAM, the cache cannot exhaust all the physical RAM. However, the cache can exhaust the virtual address space in the kernel. This can cause allocation failures for other kernel components.

On 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems, the size of the virtual address range is typically larger than the physical RAM. In this situation, the working set for the system file cache can increase to consume most of the physical RAM.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, use the GetSystemFileCacheSize API function and the SetSystemFileCacheSize API function to set the maximum or minimum size value for the working sets of the system file cache. The use of these functions is the only supported method to restrict the consumption of physical memory by the system file cache.

The Microsoft Windows Dynamic Cache Service is a sample service that demonstrates one strategy to use these APIs to minimize the effects of this issue.

Installing and using the Microsoft Dynamic Cache Service does not cause the exclusion of support for Microsoft Windows. This service and its source code are provided as an example of how to use the Microsoft supported APIs to reduce the growth of the file system cache.

The service and source code can be downloaded from the following link in the Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e24ade0a-5efe-43c8-b9c3-5d0ecb2f39af&displaylang=en