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I administer a Windows 2008 server (well, on Amazon EC2) running IIS and a .NET4 Web app. I got a memory alert the other day and went and looked, and sure enough the process memory had grown over time via some kind of slow leak. It didn't grow by much, just like 60M to 200M, but enough else was going on with the box that it went over our pretty low threshold (75%) to set off the monitor.

I recycled the app's pool and the memory freed up, and I noticed upon reviewing stats that swap space was being used significantly and that more than 1 GB of it freed up with that recycle.

Maybe this is a basic question, but I'm a UNIX guy and I'm used to swap not getting used until you're out of memory. This box has never gone above 75% memory usage. Is this a Windows thing or a .NET thing or an Amazon thing? I suspect that there's a much larger memory leak in this app than suspected - it's not leaking from 60M to 200M, it's leaking from 60M to 1.2GB, but much of that is somehow going "cold" and being pushed out to swap?

I have memory recycling set on the application pool, but it triggers off box full memory, so this app could get really, really big before it recycles automatically.

I could set up regular "timed" recycling, but that's a workaround, I'll get the dev to fix the app but need to understand what's going on here with the swap usage to make sure I am understanding this right.

I administer a Windows 2008 server (well, on Amazon EC2) running IIS and a .NET4 Web app. I got a memory alert the other day and went and looked, and sure enough the process memory had grown over time via some kind of slow leak. It didn't grow by much, just like 60M to 200M, but enough else was going on with the box that it went over our pretty low threshold (75%) to set off the monitor.

I recycled the app's pool and the memory freed up, and I noticed upon reviewing stats that swap space was being used significantly and that more than 1 GB of it freed up with that recycle.

Maybe this is a basic question, but I'm a UNIX guy and I'm used to swap not getting used until you're out of memory. This box has never gone above 75% memory usage. Is this a Windows thing or a .NET thing or an Amazon thing? I suspect that there's a much larger memory leak in this app than suspected - it's not leaking from 60M to 200M, it's leaking from 60M to 1.2GB, but much of that is somehow going "cold" and being pushed out to swap?

I have memory recycling set on the application pool, but it triggers off box full memory, so this app could get really, really big before it recycles automatically.

I could set up regular "timed" recycling, but that's a workaround, I'll get the dev to fix the app but need to understand what's going on here with the swap usage to make sure I am understanding this right.

Edit with more info: instance memory: 1.7 GB swap: 4.5 GB

I see the w3wp.exe process in taskmgr showing that Memory: 211,000k. But when I restarted it (it's in its own app pool, and it's the only app on the box), its memory usage went down to its normal starting point of 60M and like 1 GB+ of swap also freed up. In taskmgr I just had the usual Memory (Private Working Set) stat up, but saw the swap change via my other monitoring (Cloudkick). Going back and looking at it today, memory is back up to 195M on the process (1.2 GB total) and swap has crept from 1.0 GB to 1.1 GB, buyt not all the way back up where it was (graphing over time, it's a slow creep).

I'm less concerned about this specific app and more concerned about just understanding when Windows swaps and how it uses that, and what to be concerned about given Windows memory and swap usage in general.

I administer a Windows 2008 server (well, on Amazon EC2) running IIS and a .NET4 Web app. I got a memory alert the other day and went and looked, and sure enough the process memory had grown over time via some kind of slow leak. It didn't grow by much, just like 60k to 200k, but enough else was going on with the box that it went over our pretty low threshold (75%) to set off the monitor.

I recycled the app's pool and the memory freed up, and I noticed upon reviewing stats that swap space was being used significantly and that more than 1 GB of it freed up with that recycle.

Maybe this is a basic question, but I'm a UNIX guy and I'm used to swap not getting used until you're out of memory. This box has never gone above 75% memory usage. Is this a Windows thing or a .NET thing or an Amazon thing? I suspect that there's a much larger memory leak in this app than suspected - it's not leaking from 60k to 200k, it's leaking from 60k to 1GB, but much of that is somehow going "cold" and being pushed out to swap?

I have memory recycling set on the application pool, but it triggers off box full memory, so this app could get really, really big before it recycles automatically.

I could set up regular "timed" recycling, but that's a workaround, I'll get the dev to fix the app but need to understand what's going on here with the swap usage to make sure I am understanding this right.

I administer a Windows 2008 server (well, on Amazon EC2) running IIS and a .NET4 Web app. I got a memory alert the other day and went and looked, and sure enough the process memory had grown over time via some kind of slow leak. It didn't grow by much, just like 60M to 200M, but enough else was going on with the box that it went over our pretty low threshold (75%) to set off the monitor.

I recycled the app's pool and the memory freed up, and I noticed upon reviewing stats that swap space was being used significantly and that more than 1 GB of it freed up with that recycle.

Maybe this is a basic question, but I'm a UNIX guy and I'm used to swap not getting used until you're out of memory. This box has never gone above 75% memory usage. Is this a Windows thing or a .NET thing or an Amazon thing? I suspect that there's a much larger memory leak in this app than suspected - it's not leaking from 60M to 200M, it's leaking from 60M to 1.2GB, but much of that is somehow going "cold" and being pushed out to swap?

I have memory recycling set on the application pool, but it triggers off box full memory, so this app could get really, really big before it recycles automatically.

I could set up regular "timed" recycling, but that's a workaround, I'll get the dev to fix the app but need to understand what's going on here with the swap usage to make sure I am understanding this right.

I admin a Windows 2008 server (well, on Amazon EC2) running IIS and a .NET4 Web app. I got a memory alert the other day and went and looked, and sure enough the process memory had grown over time via some kind of slow leak. It didn't grow by much, just like 60k to 200k, but enough else was going on with the box that it went over our pretty low threshold (75%) to set off the monitor.

I recycled the app's pool and the memory freed up, and I noticed upon reviewing stats that swap space was being used significantly and that more than 1 GB of it freed up with that recycle.

Maybe this is a basic question, but I'm a UNIX guy and I'm used to swap not getting used until you're out of memory. This box has never gone above 75% memory usage. Is this a Windows thing or a .NET thing or an Amazon thing? I suspect that there's a much larger memory leak in this app than suspected - it's not leaking from 60k to 200k, it's leaking from 60k to 1GB, but much of that is somehow going "cold" and being pushed out to swap?

I have memory recycling set on the application pool, but it triggers off box full memory, so this app could get really, really big before it recycles automatically.

I could set up regular "timed" recycling, but that's a workaround, I'll get the dev to fix the app but need to understand what's going on here with the swap usage to make sure I am understanding this right. Thanks in advance!

I administer a Windows 2008 server (well, on Amazon EC2) running IIS and a .NET4 Web app. I got a memory alert the other day and went and looked, and sure enough the process memory had grown over time via some kind of slow leak. It didn't grow by much, just like 60k to 200k, but enough else was going on with the box that it went over our pretty low threshold (75%) to set off the monitor.

I recycled the app's pool and the memory freed up, and I noticed upon reviewing stats that swap space was being used significantly and that more than 1 GB of it freed up with that recycle.

Maybe this is a basic question, but I'm a UNIX guy and I'm used to swap not getting used until you're out of memory. This box has never gone above 75% memory usage. Is this a Windows thing or a .NET thing or an Amazon thing? I suspect that there's a much larger memory leak in this app than suspected - it's not leaking from 60k to 200k, it's leaking from 60k to 1GB, but much of that is somehow going "cold" and being pushed out to swap?

I have memory recycling set on the application pool, but it triggers off box full memory, so this app could get really, really big before it recycles automatically.

I could set up regular "timed" recycling, but that's a workaround, I'll get the dev to fix the app but need to understand what's going on here with the swap usage to make sure I am understanding this right.