Topic Last Modified: 2005-11-18

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool queries the Win32_PerfRawData_PerfOS_Memory Microsoft Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) class to determine the current value for the FreeSystemPageTableEntries object. If the value for FreeSystemPageTableEntries is less than or equal to 5000, an error is displayed.

Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 and Windows 2000 Server can directly address up to 4 gigabytes (GB) of memory address space, regardless of how much physical RAM is installed. From the process perspective, each element of virtual address conceptually refers to a byte of physical memory. It is the responsibility of the Virtual Memory Manager (VMM) in conjunction with processor memory manager unit (MMU) to translate or map each virtual address into a corresponding physical address. The VMM performs the mapping by dividing the RAM into fixed-size page frames, creating system page table entries (PTEs) to store information about these page frames, and mapping them. System PTEs are small kernel mode buffers of memory that are used to communicate with the disk I/O subsystem and the network. Each PTE represents a page frame and contains information necessary for the VMM to locate a page.

On an x86-based system that uses a 4 kilobyte (KB) page size, the maximum number of PTEs required to map 2 GB of address space is 524,288 (2 GB/4 KB). On a similar system using the /3GB switch, the number of PTEs required to map 3 GB of address space is 786,432 (3 GB/4 KB). On a typical system, this space is used as follows:

This PTE pool size is automatically determined at system startup based on the amount of physical memory in the system. This pool is squeezed in between paged pool and non-paged pool, which also grows with the amount of physical memory in the system.

The system PTE pool can become heavily used and heavily fragmented. This can lead to situations where a driver may not load. Also, if the system PTE pool is depleted entirely, other parts of the system will degrade, even resulting in threads not being created, system stalls and potential system crashes.

A healthy Exchange Server computer should have at least 8,000 system PTEs available at all times. If the number of free system PTEs drops below 8,000 but remains above 5,000, the warning described in Free Page Table entries is at the warning threshold will be displayed. When the number of free system PTEs drops below 5,000, this error is displayed.

To resolve this problem, you can use the procedure that follows to configure the SystemPages registry value appropriately for your Exchange Server computer's operating system. When you are running Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on Windows Server 2003 with 1 GB or more of RAM, it is recommended that you set the SystemPages registry key to zero. This recommendation contrasts with the recommendation for Windows 2000 Server, which is to set SystemPages to a value of 31000 decimal.

After performing the procedure that follows, you should monitor the number of free system PTEs. You can do this by monitoring the Memory | Free System Page Table Entries performance counter with the Windows System Monitor (also known as Performance Monitor). If, after making the registry change, the number of free system PTEs remains low, you should check the following to ensure your Exchange Server computer is optimally configured:

Important:
This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to restore the registry, view the "Restore the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.

To correct this error on a computer running Windows 2000 Server

  1. Open a registry editor, such as Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.

  2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

  3. In the right pane, double-click SystemPages.

  4. In the Value data field, type a value of 31000 Decimal (31000 is the decimal representation of 7918 hex. Regedit.exe defaults to hexadecimal values), and then click OK.

  5. Close the registry editor and restart the computer for the change to take effect.

To correct this error on a computer running the original release version of Windows Server 2003

  • Review the information in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 894067, "The Performance tool does not accurately show the available Free System Page Table entries in Windows Server 2003" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=894067), to determine the actual Free System Page Table Entries.

To correct this error on a computer running Windows Server 2003 SP1

  1. Open a registry editor, such as Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.

  2. Navigate to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

  3. In the right pane, double-click SystemPages.

  4. In the Value data field, type 0, and then click OK.

  5. Close the registry editor.

  6. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. The System Properties dialog box will appear.

  7. Click Advanced.

  8. In the Startup and Recovery area, click Settings. The Startup and Recovery dialog box will appear.

  9. In the System startup area, click Edit. This will open the Windows Boot.ini file in Notepad.

  10. Review the [Operating Systems] section.

    1. If the /3GB switch exists but not the /USERVA=3030 switch, add the /USERVA=3030 switch to the startup line so that it is configured as /3GB /USERVA=3030.

    2. If the /3GB /USERVA=3030 switches are already configured, change the /USERVA switch value to /USERVA=2970.

  11. Save the changes and close Notepad.

  12. Click OK twice to close the open dialog boxes and then restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Before you edit the registry, and for information about how to edit the registry, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 256986, "Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=256986).

For more information about optimizing memory for Exchange Server, see the following Knowledge Base articles: