W3WP process size

[MattC]

I have an ASP.NET app that is running at around 60MB for the w3wp.exe. This
often jumps very quickly to 100/120 MB before shrinking again. It is also
using around 250MB of virtual memory.

Is it normal for the memory usage to jump around so much? Also the server
is a PIII 730 with 256MB RAM, running Windows 2003 Server.

I would appreciate information form other developers memory usage.

TIA

MattC

[bruce barker]

the size of your asp.net worker process will depend on the memory usage of
all the asp.net apps its hosting. if you use inproc sessions, it can get
very big. check the event log to see if your are getting asp.net recycles
due to memory usage. you will have to do analysis to see if you are leaking
resources if you think the usage is high for your app.

there is no magic number that says what it should be. the default max for
asp.net is 60% of real memory. on my production servers we keep a lot of
data in memory (and no inproc sessions), and run around 700mb. we do memory
dumps of the asp.net worker process (see the win32 debugger and sos.dll) and
look for unexpected memeory usage in manged and unmanged memory.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

"MattC" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:uD**************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
| I have an ASP.NET app that is running at around 60MB for the w3wp.exe.
This
| often jumps very quickly to 100/120 MB before shrinking again. It is also
| using around 250MB of virtual memory.
|
| Is it normal for the memory usage to jump around so much? Also the server
| is a PIII 730 with 256MB RAM, running Windows 2003 Server.
|
| I would appreciate information form other developers memory usage.
|
| TIA
|
| MattC
|
|

[MattC]

Bruce,

Thanks for your response. The server spec is PIII 730 with 256MB RAM,
running Windows 2003 Server, SQL Server 2000. There is only one ASP.NET
application that accesses the DB on the same server.

Would you say that this server is a bit under powered for what it is being
asked to do? The problem is by the end of the day the process is using a
lot of VM and so has to constantly page data in and out of memory/disk.

Could you eloborate more on how to produce these 'dumps' (sounds awful this
time of the morning!). We have no unmanaged code. The entire app is C#
with SQLClient to connect to SQL Server.

TIA

MattC

"bruce barker" <no***********@safeco.com> wrote in message
news:O6**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

the size of your asp.net worker process will depend on the memory usage of
all the asp.net apps its hosting. if you use inproc sessions, it can get
very big. check the event log to see if your are getting asp.net recycles
due to memory usage. you will have to do analysis to see if you are
leaking
resources if you think the usage is high for your app.

there is no magic number that says what it should be. the default max for
asp.net is 60% of real memory. on my production servers we keep a lot of
data in memory (and no inproc sessions), and run around 700mb. we do
memory
dumps of the asp.net worker process (see the win32 debugger and sos.dll)
and
look for unexpected memeory usage in manged and unmanged memory.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

"MattC" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:uD**************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
| I have an ASP.NET app that is running at around 60MB for the w3wp.exe.
This
| often jumps very quickly to 100/120 MB before shrinking again. It is
also
| using around 250MB of virtual memory.
|
| Is it normal for the memory usage to jump around so much? Also the
server
| is a PIII 730 with 256MB RAM, running Windows 2003 Server.
|
| I would appreciate information form other developers memory usage.
|
| TIA
|
| MattC
|
|

[bruce barker]

its only underpowered if it can not handle your load with the performance
you want. you have to decide that. if you are paging, then more memory will
stop paging, but the question is, does it matter? is the site fast enough?

if you download the win32 sdk kit it has a win32 debugger. the sos.dll is
the support for mamaged code. it will allow walking the heap, and looking at
both managed and unmanged code. docs are sparse and playing with it is the
best.
-- bruce (sqlwork.com)
"MattC" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:Oe**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
| Bruce,
|
| Thanks for your response. The server spec is PIII 730 with 256MB RAM,
| running Windows 2003 Server, SQL Server 2000. There is only one ASP.NET
| application that accesses the DB on the same server.
|
| Would you say that this server is a bit under powered for what it is being
| asked to do? The problem is by the end of the day the process is using a
| lot of VM and so has to constantly page data in and out of memory/disk.
|
| Could you eloborate more on how to produce these 'dumps' (sounds awful
this
| time of the morning!). We have no unmanaged code. The entire app is C#
| with SQLClient to connect to SQL Server.
|
| TIA
|
| MattC
|
| "bruce barker" <no***********@safeco.com> wrote in message
| news:O6**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
| > the size of your asp.net worker process will depend on the memory usage
of
| > all the asp.net apps its hosting. if you use inproc sessions, it can get
| > very big. check the event log to see if your are getting asp.net
recycles
| > due to memory usage. you will have to do analysis to see if you are
| > leaking
| > resources if you think the usage is high for your app.
| >
| > there is no magic number that says what it should be. the default max
for
| > asp.net is 60% of real memory. on my production servers we keep a lot of
| > data in memory (and no inproc sessions), and run around 700mb. we do
| > memory
| > dumps of the asp.net worker process (see the win32 debugger and sos.dll)
| > and
| > look for unexpected memeory usage in manged and unmanged memory.
| >
| > -- bruce (sqlwork.com)
| >
| > "MattC" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
| > news:uD**************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
| > | I have an ASP.NET app that is running at around 60MB for the w3wp.exe.
| > This
| > | often jumps very quickly to 100/120 MB before shrinking again. It is
| > also
| > | using around 250MB of virtual memory.
| > |
| > | Is it normal for the memory usage to jump around so much? Also the
| > server
| > | is a PIII 730 with 256MB RAM, running Windows 2003 Server.
| > |
| > | I would appreciate information form other developers memory usage.
| > |
| > | TIA
| > |
| > | MattC
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|