Cognos server using up memory

[cfunkho]

I have a Cognos BI server on a virtual Windows Server 2008 that has 4GB of RAM.  For the last year and a half, there's been 60-70% of the physical memory free, with only occasional spikes.

I logged on last week and there was 0 physical memory free.  I restarted the Cognos service, and the service would stop but wouldn't start.  So I re-booted the server.  After the re-boot, I assumed memory levels would return to normal, but they didn't.  It's been consistently 0-10% free now for about a week.

I've been through the Windows event logs, and don't see anything that changed.  Cognos usage hasn't changed significantly.  The big memory hogs are the typical Cognos things (java.exe and BIBusTKServerMain.exe).

I can increase the memory on the server, but before I do, I'd like to know why the memory usage on this server has changed so drastically.  What could I look at to try to determine what's causing the problem, -or- how can I get the memory usage back to normal?

Thanks,
Chris Funkhouser

[Danno]

Have you tried running the Resource Monitor over an extended period of time to capture the specifics of memory use on the server? It has a decent help file that will help you create a diagnosis report that may allow you to narrow in on the issues that are affecting this server.

Just a thought....

Dan

[ykud]

I have a Cognos BI server on a virtual Windows Server 2008 that has 4GB of RAM.  For the last year and a half, there's been 60-70% of the physical memory free, with only occasional spikes.

That's quite strange, Cognos usually eats up 4Gb fairly quickly (~800 Mb for java.exe and a couple of 1 Gb BiBusTK would do the trick). I can't imagine a Cognos instance with 4GB being 60% free )

I'd recommend extending memory and using perfmon to capture memory usage for a couple of days to determine the main issues.
Sometimes corporate policies bring new updates / antiviruses / monitoring software that can be a burden as well.