What's the default memory allocation policy in Windows Server 2012 Terminal Services?
We've got a problem where we have an application that requires a large amount of RAM (100GB approx). The machine has 256GB ram.
However, despite the fact that the machine is not under memory pressure, there is apparently free ram, Windows is only giving the process a 50GB working set, causing it to page furiously and hence run really slowly.
So I'm trying to find out information about the default memory allocation policy Windows uses. Note that Windows Server Resource Manager is NOT installed on this machine, but what I don't know is what Windows does in its absence. Is it still doing some kind of "equal per process" or "equal per user" allocation?
Thanks.
Best Answer
Windows Server Resource Manager is depreciated in Windows Server 2012. Microsoft recommends using Hyper-V to replace its functionality (presumably with things like VM prioritization and host reserve) but this is admittedly a poor replacement. See Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows System Resource Manager Replacement? for details.
As for Window's memory allocation policy you should probably start with Mark Russinovich's series of blog posts Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory.
I believe there is no way to dedicate a set amount of RAM to a particular process anymore unless the feature is built into the application (e.g., MS SQL, IIS Application Pools).