Re: Excess memory usage growth for a process

Not answering this particular question, but I believe you could hook all th=
is together to automatically get that dump when the memory gets large if it=
's rare enough that you don't want to sit and look at it all day. Perfmon h=
as triggers that can fire off a script, and you can fire off the debugging =
script ADPlus to dump your process with the -hang option.

Phil Wilson


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics. [mailto:[email protected]=
E.LSOFT.COM] On Behalf Of Eddie Lascu
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 11:40 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a process

Based on my preliminary reading of what this has to offer, it seems you can
integrate it with your VS IDE (not an option for me as my processes are
already deployed) or use it via WinDbg, but you need to look at the debug
version or the runtime version that has the .pdb file (not an option either
as I only have the sole runtime file deployed, but much easily fixable). Is
this statement accurate?

Thanks,
Eddie

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Adam Tuliper
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 1:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a process

http://blogs.msdn.com/alejacma/archive/2009/06/30/sos-cheat-sheet-net-2-0-3=
-
0-3-5.aspx

!DumpHeap -min 85000
!EEHeap -GC; !DumpHeap <LOH begin> <LOH allocated>
    -> Shows all objects in Large Object Heap (LOH/Gen 3).




On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 1:06 PM, Greg Young <[email protected]> wrote=
:

> Yes with ants you have to wait for the problem to happen.
>
> if you google SOS you can find some tutorials on it (it is a separate
> download from windbg ... it can also be used in visual studio!). John
> Robbins also has a great book covering the subject that I highly
> recommend.
>
> Cheers,
>
> greg
>
> On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Eddie Lascu<[email protected]> wrote:
> > Shoot, I didn't know SOS can do that for you. Can you share more about
> this
> > tool (a link to download it)? Is it part of the WinDbg tool that comes
> from
> > Microsoft? It's true that with ANTS I am at the mercy of the system,
> hoping
> > it will go nuts again and will have the memory size shut up crazy high.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Eddie
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Greg Young
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 12:46 PM
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a process
> >
> > The wonderful thing about SOS is you dont need to run a profiler ...
> > when it happens take a memory dump, look whats actually happening in
> > the running app, is your LOH fragmented? Otherwise you are just
> > sticking your thumb up your butt and saying it will rain next
> > thursday.
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Eddie Lascu<[email protected]>
> wrote:
> >> I am using Reg Gate ANTS to profile the app, but it may take too much
to
> >> happen again. Before the spike I saw last weekend, the processes ran
for
> > 3-4
> >> months with no significant change in the size of memory used.
> >> Will look into Process.WorkingSet.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Eddie
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> >> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Greg Young
> >> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 12:38 PM
> >> To: [email protected]
> >> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a proces=
s
> >>
> >> Task manager shows you working set not total memory used but yes the
> >> process class can help you with that (Process.WorkingSet as an
> >> example).
> >>
> >> Have you verified the LOH being the problem by using SOS?
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >>
> >> Greg
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Eddie Lascu<[email protected]>
> wrote:
> >>> Hi guys,
> >>>
> >>> In light of this article:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
>
http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-framework/the-dangers-of-the-large-o=
b
> >> ject-heap/
> >>>
> >>> I am no longer sure what I have is a memory leak. I could see how som=
e
> of
> >> the things that happen in my application match the scenarios described
> in
> >> the above article. Hence, I am ready to think about a workaround. My
> >> services are set up to run automatically and restart in case they
crash.
> >> While they never crash, I could leverage that feature and use it to fi=
x
> > this
> >> excess memory usage that I experience every once in a blue moon. What =
I
> >> thought was to monitor the memory used and terminate the application i=
n
> > case
> >> it exceeds a set threshold. The Windows Service Manager will then
> restart
> >> the service and all the memory will be reclaimed by the OS.
> >>>
> >>> My question at this point is whether the .NET Framework has some
metric
> >> classes that can help monitor the total amount of memory allocated
> within
> > a
> >> process. Surely System.Diagnostics must have something like that. Is
> > anyone
> >> aware of a way to find out what memory is used by a process, just like
> the
> >> Task Manager does?
> >>>
> >>> Cheers,
> >>> Eddie
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> >> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Shawn
> > Wildermuth
> >>> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 12:49 PM
> >>> To: [email protected]
> >>> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a
process
> >>>
> >>> Also, your 'using' statement stuff should help, but are you sure that
> all
> >>> your object (XML classes and db connection classes) that support
> >> IDisposable
> >>> are being cleaned up?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>>
> >>> Shawn Wildermuth
> >>> http://wildermuth.com
> >>> https://agilitrain.com
> >>> Microsoft MVP (C#), MCSD.NET, Author and Speaker
> >>>
> >>> The Silverlight Tour is coming to a city near you!
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> >>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Warne=
r
> >>> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 12:28 PM
> >>> To: [email protected]
> >>> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a
process
> >>>
> >>> I don't disagree with you just note that before 'some change' working
> OK
> >>> no memory leaks, after change, memory leak. We both know your code di=
d
> > not
> >>> recompile itself to include a memory leak ...
> >>> That reminds has the framework/runtimes been updated/patched?
> >>>
> >>> John Warner
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics. [mailto:ADVANCED-
> >>>> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Eddie Lascu
> >>>> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 12:00 PM
> >>>> To: [email protected]
> >>>> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a
> >>>> process
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi John,
> >>>>
> >>>> I could check that with our system administrators. Do you think that
> can
> >>> be
> >>>> a possible explanation?
> >>>> I just talked with one of the DB Admin and she said she made some
> >>> changes
> >>>> on
> >>>> some Stored Produces, but nothing as dramatic as a patch update. She
> >>> also
> >>>> said that the drivers for the network cards were updated last week,
> but
> >>> I
> >>>> can't see how that can affect the memory used by my processes.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks,
> >>>> Eddie
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> >>>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
> >>>> John Warner
> >>>> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 11:49 AM
> >>>> To: [email protected]
> >>>> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a
> >>>> process
> >>>>
> >>>> Not what you are seeking, but has anything on the server changed? An
> >>>> Oracle patch or something of that nature?
> >>>>
> >>>> John Warner
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> > -----Original Message-----
> >>>> > From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics. [mailto:ADVANCED-
> >>>> > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Eddie Lascu
> >>>> > Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 11:33 AM
> >>>> > To: [email protected]
> >>>> > Subject: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Excess memory usage growth for a
> >>>> process
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Hi guys,
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > I need your help with an issue I am having right now. I have
several
> >>>> windows
> >>>> > services deployed. These services gather some XML files from the
> >>>> internet
> >>>> > and then parse the content and save the information in the
database.
> >>> The
> >>>> > database is Oracle 11g, so the access is done through ODP.NET. I
> had
> >>>> some
> >>>> > issues before (and some of you with good memory may recall my
> previous
> >>>> > questions) where I noticed the memory used by these services
growing
> >>>> very
> >>>> > high. At the time, I understood that some classes in the ODP.NET
> >>> library
> >>>> use
> >>>> > some JAVA code and they are known for not cleaning properly after
> >>> them.
> >>>> As a
> >>>> > result I rewrote my code in such a way that every dynamic
allocation
> >>> of
> >>>> an
> >>>> > object from the ODP.NET library was encompassed in an "using"
> >>> statement,
> >>>> > like this:
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > using (OracleCommand objDbCommand =3D new
> >>>> > OracleCommand(strSqlSelectStatement,
> >>>> > objConnection))
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > All was fine for a very long time. All my services kept a constant
> >>> size
> >>>> when
> >>>> > it came to the total memory used, a size that hovered around 55-60
> MB.
> >>>> This
> >>>> > was the case for months. At the beginning I checked the size almos=
t
> on
> >>> a
> >>>> > daily basis. After a while, my confidence grew and I only checked
it
> >>>> once a
> >>>> > week or so. Every time I looked at the size of all my processes (I
> had
> >>> 4
> >>>> > that followed pretty much the same approach on dealing with those
> >>> Oracle
> >>>> > objects) the size was around that 55-60 MB mark.
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Now, all of a sudden, this last weekend, the size for some of the
> >>>> services
> >>>> > shut up to about 690 MB, despite the fact the service was running
> with
> >>>> the
> >>>> > exact same code as it did a month ago. This represents a potential
> >>> fatal
> >>>> > problem for the server that can get to a point where it can no
> longer
> >>>> > allocate memory, so I need to find a way to understand what the
heck
> >>> is
> >>>> > going on. Unfortunately, I do not have any metrics implemented in
my
> >>>> > application to log the total amount of memory used. That would hav=
e
> >>> been
> >>>> a
> >>>> > very good indication on when exactly did this surge started to
> happen.
> >>> I
> >>>> > could have checked the Event Viewer to see if the server got hit b=
y
> a
> >>>> > nuclear bomb or something on that precise moment. I really don't
get
> >>>> this. I
> >>>> > mean that's why we moved to .NET in the first place, to be rid of
> such
> >>>> > concerns, like making sure all dynamically allocated objects are
> then
> >>>> > destroyed.
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Can anyone give me an idea on how to investigate this issue? Are
> there
> >>>> tools
> >>>> > out there that could be used to pick at the memory allocated by a
> >>>> process
> >>>> > and see what are those objects that take up so much  memory? For
the
> >>>> time
> >>>> > being, I have the processes running, but two of them are at or
close
> >>> to
> >>>> 690
> >>>> > MB and I don't know how long will I be able to keep them running.
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > If you had an issue like this, what would you try to do?
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > TIA,
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Eddie
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
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