The Memory - Physical Memory Available alarm is activated when the available memory drops below a threshold.
The Memory - Physical Memory Available alarm is activated when the available memory drops below a threshold. This can result in:
- Applications being unable to secure additional memory.
- New programs being unable to open successfully.
- General performance degradation due to excessive paging.
When the alarm is raised:
- Look at the Windows Server | Processes drilldown | Processes page. Check the Phys MB column for processes using excessive amounts of memory. You can:
- Close those applications using excessive memory.
- Change the maximum memory usage setting for those applications using excessive memory. Refer to the relevant documentation to find out if this setting is supported by the application.
- Purchase more physical memory for your system.
- Determine if any programs have a memory leak. To do this:
- Restart the Windows Server to ensure fresh memory usage by all applications.
- Use the Microsoft Performance Monitor tool and set the update interval to 10 minutes.
- Add the Working Set Peak counter for all applications from the Process object.
- Leave the application running on the system overnight.
- If there is a memory leak that can be viewed in a day, it will show up with the Working Set Peak graph for one of the applications rising smoothly. If the results are inconclusive after a day, some system applications that have a memory leak may exhibit the behavior over a week or more. Adjust the update interval to accommodate the extended period (update once per hour or more).