This topic describes issues caused by insufficient virtual memory on Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances that run Windows Server 2003 or 2008 and provides solutions.
Problem description
Insufficient virtual memory on an ECS instance that runs Windows Server 2003 or 2008 can cause various issues, including the following:
The operating system runs slowly or becomes unresponsive. A blue background appears when you use Remote Desktop to connect to the instance.
After you enter the username and password for a VNC connection, the logon process is stuck on the Welcome screen.
A Remote Desktop connection to the instance fails and returns the error message The paging file is too small for this operation to complete.
A service may fail to install. For example, when installing services such as IIS, .NET Framework, or FTP, the installation process may display the message Not enough resources or become unresponsive.
Third-party services, such as the MySQL service, fail to install or cannot start after installation.
Windows Update fails.
The system displays an out of virtual memory error message. Applications shut down unexpectedly because memory allocation fails.
When you open Server Manager, the following error message is displayed: MMC has detected an error in a snap-in and will unload it.
The Server Manager console closes automatically upon opening, displaying the message Microsoft Management Console has stopped working.
For screenshots of the error messages for these issues, see Common symptoms of insufficient virtual memory.
Causes
The system may run out of virtual memory for the following reasons:
Insufficient physical memory resources.
The system does not have a paging file configured, or the configured paging file is too small.
The system has a memory leak. This can also include other types of core resource leaks.
In the Windows operating system, the kernel and applications use virtual memory for memory management. Because physical memory is a limited resource, Windows uses a paging file to implement virtual memory. For example, in a 32-bit operating system, each process has its own dedicated 2 GiB user mode virtual address space. When the memory used by all active processes exceeds the available physical memory, the operating system moves one or more pages (4 KiB) of the virtual address space to the computer's hard disk. This frees up physical memory for other uses. In Windows, these paged-out pages are stored in one or more files (Pagefile.sys) in the root directory of a partition.
The graphical interface of Windows makes it a popular choice for many users. When you purchase an ECS instance, you need at least 1 GiB of memory to select a Windows operating system. Although 1 GiB of memory is sufficient for the system to run, you may experience out-of-memory issues after you configure the environment and install additional software.
Solutions
Step 1: Check for out-of-memory issues
When an out-of-virtual-memory issue occurs, you can check the system log or Task Manager.
Method 1: Check the system log
Connect to the ECS instance that runs Windows Server 2003 or 2008.
For more information, see Connection methods.
Open the Run window, type eventvwr.exe, and click OK.
In Event Viewer, select Windows Logs > System.
In the system log, find the system event with the following properties: Event ID 2004, Source Resource-Exhaustion-Detector.
Click the event to view details about the out-of-virtual-memory event.
The details show that mysqld.exe consumes a large amount of virtual memory.
Method 2: Check Task Manager
Connect to the ECS instance that runs Windows Server 2003 or 2008.
For more information, see Connection methods.
Right-click the taskbar and select Start Task Manager.
In the Windows Task Manager window, click the Performance tab to view the ratio of committed memory to the virtual memory limit.
The commit charge (MB) is the ratio of committed virtual memory to the virtual memory limit. According to Microsoft's official documentation, a commit charge of 3790/4093 is over 80% and indicates that the system is low on memory.
Step 2: Resolve the out-of-memory issue
When an out-of-memory issue occurs, try the following solutions:
Method 1: If the system does not have a paging file configured by default, you can manually configure a paging file. For more information, see Configure virtual memory for a Windows instance.
Method 2: If the out-of-memory issue persists after you configure a paging file, the cause may be one of the following:
The application has high memory requirements. To resolve this, upgrade the instance type to increase the physical memory of the ECS instance and increase the paging file size accordingly. For more information, see Overview of instance type upgrades and downgrades.
Check for memory leaks.
Common symptoms of insufficient virtual memory
The following are various issues caused by insufficient virtual memory.
A blue screen appears upon remote logon.
A message about the paging file being too small appears during remote logon.
When you log on to the server using the management terminal in the console, the logon process is stuck on the Welcome page.
When you install IIS, you receive the message Not enough system resources.
When you install .NET Framework or FTP, you may receive a Not enough system resources error.
An error occurs when you use a one-click installation package to install MySQL on Windows Server 2008, and MySQL cannot start after installation.
Other MySQL installation methods hang.
When you start the wampmysqld service after installing WAMP, the message The wampmysqld service on Local Computer could not be started appears.
When you add a role, the message The paging file is too small for this operation to complete is displayed.
After you open Server Manager, it automatically closes and the message Microsoft Management Console has stopped working appears.
When you open Server Manager, the following message appears: MMC has detected an error in a snap-in and will unload it.
When you start Tomcat, the Windows - Out of Virtual Memory message is displayed.
The error message Your system is low on virtual memory appears when you connect to the instance using a VNC connection.
The SQL Server 2008 installation hangs.