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Lock Pages in Memory ... do you really need it?
Published Mar 15 2019 06:41 PM 4,911 Views
Microsoft
First published on TECHNET on Mar 25, 2008


Back In October, we wrote a post regarding the Event ID 333 Errors and how to troubleshoot them .  At the end of that post, we mentioned the "Lock Pages in Memory" user right.  One of the things we mentioned was that if you have an x64 system, you should not enable this right.  Over the last few months, we have seen a number of cases where x64 SQL servers have been exhibiting performance issues - either within the Operating System or within SQL.  It's not always the Event ID 333 messages that we've been seeing either, so today we're going to give you the lowdown on Lock Pages in Memory - and whether or not you really need it.  So, let's get started ...

The scenarios listed below are some typical scenarios that we work on with customers on a daily basis.  For each of these scenarios, we are going to use a system with 8 processors, 32GB of RAM installed, and a 64-bit OS with 64-bit SQL installed:

  • Scenario 1: SQL Maximum Memory is set to 30GB.  The symptoms are that SQL Working Set is getting trimmed during large file copies and also during the backup process.
  • Scenario 2: SQL Maximum Memory is set to 28GB.  SQL is getting paged out during copy operations and when compression software is running its processes
  • Scenario 3: SQL Maximum Memory is set to 30GB.  This is on a SQL Enterprise Edition, and the "Lock Pages in Memory" right is configured.  The Event Logs are filling up with Event ID 333.

Before we start digging into the troubleshooting, let's quickly review some important points regarding these scenarios.  In the first two instances, the most likely cause of the problem is incorrect scaling or configuration.  Moving on, the Event ID 333 indicates that we are unable to flush the registry, or perform read / write operations to the registry.  As we mentioned in our Event ID 333 post , there are several possible causes.  One common cause is memory pressure - you may also see Event ID 2019's or 2020's indicating a resource depletion or you may have a condition with low PTE's.  However, this is not always the case, and we'll get into this a bit later on in the post.  Something interesting to note is that when you are in a situation where you are experiencing Event ID 333, a memory dump may not be of any use - because we can't see what caused the Event 333.  The only way to clear the event and restore operations is to reboot the server.

OK, so why do we start running into these issues?  SQL Server listens to Physical Memory Notifications to trim its working set.  In these scenarios, the trimming is done by the working set manager which has its own set of rules for how and when to trim memory.  On Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, if the currently available resources are insufficient to satisfy a new request for resources made by a driver or another application, the working set manager will trim the working set size of all applications to satisfy the request.  Small but repeated working set trimming will eventually result in significant portion of SQL Server being paged out.  To compensate for this SQL queries its own working set on a regular basis and triggers an internal indication that physical memory is low when a significant portion of its memory allocations have been trimmed.  The Catch-22 here is that although SQL can decommit memory, the pages that are decommitted may not be the same ones that were paged out.

However, if the request for resources is a request for contiguous memory, then the working set manager uses aggressive trimming that results in all applications being forced to empty their working sets.  This is a key difference to bear in mind based on what type of request is made.  In Windows Server 2008, however we efficiently (and gracefully) swap out the memory instead of emptying all the working sets - which results in better overall and consistent performance.

Switching our attention to SQL server specifically, there are a couple of memory settings within SQL that can be configured - Max and Min Server Memory.  When configuring the Max Memory setting (and Min Memory setting) for SQL Server, it is important to realize that these settings only affects the SQL Buffer Pool.  They do not control the overall amount of physical memory consumed by SQL server.  The buffer pool is used to cache data pages from the disk and to satisfy the memory requirements for the query processor and for other internal data structures.  The size of a SQL Server database page is 8KB.  Memory is committed and decommitted in 8KB chunks.  So, each time a query is made, or data mining is performed that memory allocation occurs in 8KB chunks.  However, the problem is that these chunks are not allocated in a contiguous fashion - the image below illustrates how this might look:

SQL Server itself may require anywhere from approximately 3MB to 650MB of Physical Memory.  We're talking about the actual SQL Server process itself here (SQLSERVR.EXE).  The actual number required is a function of the size and number of databases - in other words, the amount of data.  One thing to note here is that if you were to look at this in a Performance Monitor, both the Buffer Pool and the SQL Server process itself are all displayed under the SQLSERVR.EXE process.

Now that we've set the stage we're ready to start digging into the scenarios that we outlined above.  Remember that our sample system has 32GB of RAM installed, 8 processors, and is running a 64-bit OS with 64-bit SQL installed.  So ...

Scenario 1: SQL Maximum Memory is set to 30GB.  The symptoms are that SQL Working Set is getting trimmed during large file copies and also during the backup process.  When looking at this problem, a couple of things spring to mind.  From a simplistic view, SQL Server has a maximum memory setting of 30GB, leaving 2GB for the Operating system.  On the surface, this seems reasonable, right?  Well, the problem is that there is a lot more to consider than just the Operating System.  If you recall our post in May 2007 regarding SQL and the Working Set , we broke down some of the math behind the calculations:

  • Our system has 32GB RAM installed
  • We have 30GB allocated to SQL
  • We also need to allow 2GB for the MPA / Thread Stacks / Linked Servers etc (see Max Worker Threads Option on MSDN for more information)

Uh-oh.  We haven't allocated a single Megabyte of RAM for the Operating System and we're already at 32GB.  If you consider that the absolute minimum required just to install the Operating System is 128MB, then it's pretty clear that we already have a resource problem.  So given that we already have a resource crunch, it's pretty easy to see what is going to happen.  For small requests, SQL will get paged out in small chunks - however, when we perform a large file copy, there clearly are not going to be sufficient resources to satisfy this request, and the aggressive working set trimming takes place.  Now let's move on to ...

Scenario 2: SQL Maximum Memory is set to 28GB.  SQL is getting paged out during copy operations and when compression software is running its processes.  So we have backed off our Maximum Memory from 30GB to 28GB.  We should be fine now, right?  Unfortunately, now we are seeing SQL getting paged out.  Let's go back to our math:

  • Our system has 32GB RAM installed
  • We have 28GB allocated to SQL
  • 2GB for the MPA / Thread Stacks / Linked Servers etc
  • Which leaves 2GB for the Operating system to run

Well, the problem with this series of calculations is that it still omits a few key items - like all of the other applications that are running on the system, including some pretty standard applications such as:

  • Anti-virus
  • Backup Software
  • Server Monitoring and Maintenance software (such as SMS, MOM etc)

And of course, since this is a SQL Server, there are SQL specific tools to consider, including:

  • Database compression software
  • SQL Agent - each instance of SQL Agent requires approximately 65MB.  Remember, that is per process .  SQL Agent may spawn off multiple child processes such as backups, cleanups, copies, and moves
  • SQL Maintenance - On average, SQL Maintenance processes require anywhere from 75MB - 125MB each .  This would include activities such as Log Shipping, Log Trimming etc

The same basic tenets apply as in the first scenario, we just have a little bit more room to maneuver in terms of memory allocation.  However, the bottom line is still that we do have a resource crunch based on the current configuration.  And with that, it's on to ...

Scenario 3: SQL Maximum Memory is set to 30GB.  This is on a SQL Enterprise Edition, and the "Lock Pages in Memory" right is configured.  The Event Logs are filling up with Event ID 333.  Given what we've talked about in Scenario 1, we already know that we have a resource crunch.  Here's where the "Lock Pages in Memory" feature can get us into trouble.  "Lock Pages in Memory" is an Operating System feature that allows any application that can access the API to take its buffer pool and lock it into physical memory  thus preventing it from being paged out.  This results in quick access in the buffer pool region.  However, SQL does this by default – unless the Operating System requires more memory than what is available without having to lean on the buffer pool. If the "Lock Pages in Memory" right is not configured, then the SQL Buffer Pool is paged out or trimmed, depending on the type of request.  If "Lock Pages in Memory" is configured however, the buffer pool is protected and the working set manager is unable to free up resources for other operations - resulting in the Event ID 333 messages being generated, along with a significant increase in paging for everything other than the SQL buffer pool.

So - how do we address these issues.  If you recall from our SQL and the Working Set post, we talked about some baseline numbers to start with and then gathering a baseline Performance Monitor to do the fine-tuning.  For this example, since we don't really know how much memory the "other" applications will need, we're going to build in a little cushion for ourselves while we do our baselining.  Remember that you should remove the "Lock Pages in Memory" right when baselining the server so that you get an accurate picture of what is going on.

Going back to the calculations from our older post, we came up with the following baseline:

  • Physical RAM: 32GB
  • 2GB for the OS and other applications: 2GB
  • And let's allocate 2GB for the MPA / Thread Stacks / Linked Servers etc: 2GB (on x64 SQL Server, 2MB is allocated per worker thread.  The default number of Max Worker threads is 576 for an 8-processor server.  More information about the Max Worker threads option is available on the MSDN site - the link is in the Additional Resources section below.)
  • And finally, let's reserve 3GB for all the other applications on the server (AV, backup etc): 3GB
  • So now our max server memory setting is: 32-2-2-3 = 25GB

However, this does not really leave us much of a cushion if the applications require more than 3GB.  So we're going to change up the model slightly.

  • Physical RAM: 32GB
  • 3GB for the OS: 3GB
  • We still have our 2GB for the MPA / Thread Stacks / Linked Servers etc: 2GB
  • We add our 650MB for the SQL Server Process itself: 650MB
  • Now, in this baseline since we don't really know how much memory the other applications are going to need, we are actually going to set the Max Server Memory Setting (the SQL Buffer Pool) to 20GB.  This will give us some additional tuning room if we have been too conservative with SQL, as opposed to our previous calculation in which we were somewhat aggressive.  The benefit to this approach as opposed to our previous example is that if the applications require more than 3GB of memory then we do not adversely affect SQL Server : 20GB
  • So what we are really trying to calculate is how much memory is really needed by the "other" applications.  Right now our baseline is: 32-3-2-0.65-20 = 6.35GB.  This 6.35GB is what we are leaving for the "other" Applications.

Once we have our baseline data (see below for the specifics), we can reconfigure the Max Memory Setting to give more memory to SQL.

Now that the baseline configuration is set up, it's time to gather the Performance Monitor data.  The two primary counters to look at are:

Performance object: Process
Counter: Private Bytes
Instance: sqlservr

Performance object: Process
Counter: Working Set
Instance: sqlservr

The Private Bytes counter measures the memory that is currently committed. The Working Set counter measures the physical memory that is currently occupied by the process. 64-bit editions of SQL Server 2005 also use the following performance counter to expose the memory that the buffer pool allocates:

  • Performance object: SQL Server:Memory Manager
  • Counter: Total Server Memory (KB)

If the instance of the 64-bit edition of SQL Server 2005 is a named instance, the name of the performance object is MSSQL$InstanceName: Memory Manager.
If the value of the Working Set counter is less than the value of the Total Server Memory(KB) counter, at least some memory that is a part of the buffer pool has been trimmed from the SQL Server working set.  After you assign the Lock pages in memory user right and restart the SQL Server service, the buffer pool of the SQL Server process still responds to memory resource notification events and dynamically grows or reduces in response to these events.  However, you cannot see memory allocations for the buffer pool that are locked in memory in the following performance counters:

The Private Bytes counter and the Working Set counter in Performance Monitor.

The Memory Usage column on the Processes tab in Task Manager.

After these pages are locked, these performance counters represent the memory allocations inside the SQL Server 2005 process when those allocations do not use the buffer pool.  The Total Server Memory(KB) counter of the SQL Server:Memory Manager performance object accurately represents the memory that is allocated for the buffer pool.

As we mentioned before, Windows Server 2008 improves the contiguous memory allocation mechanism.  The improvement lets Windows Server 2008 reduce the side effects of paging out the working set of applications when new memory requests arrive.  One thing to note though is that you must install SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or a later SQL Server 2005 service pack if you are running on a Windows Server 2008 machine.

So with all of the information above, the original question still stands: "Lock Pages in Memory" .. do you really need it?  Once you have configured your server based on the results of the Performance Monitor analysis, that decision really rests with you.

Additional Resources:

- Dane Smart

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