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Pagefile warnings on machines using small system managed pagefiles

Votes:

0

I have Windows machines that are set to have system managed pagefiles. There is plenty of disk space available for the pagefiles to grow if needed. I'm getting pagefile utilization warnings on some machines because the system is using a high percentage of a very small pagefile.

For example, I have a virtual machine that's doing light file server duty. It's got 4GB RAM allocated to the VM and plenty of ridiculously fast disk available. Memory utilization on the machine is running about 40%. The system has currently allocated itself a pagefile of 704MB (16MB min allowed, 3583MB recommended), and it's been hovering at about 70% utilization of that for the past several weeks.

If the machine needs more pagefile space, there's another 29 gigs of disk that it can use so I'm confident that it'll grow the pagefile to the size that it needs.

Is there a way to get finer control over the warning/error alerts? Currently, warning on high util of a small pagefile is noise. A more useful thing to alert on would be high util of a pagefile that's as big or bigger than the recommended pagefile size.

99% util of a PF that's 20% the size of recommended - no big deal 70% util of a PF that's 100% of the recommended size - this is something I care about 50% util of a PF that's 500% of the recommended size - this is something I DEFINITELY care about

I also care about the pagefile running out of space to expand into, but that SHOULD get picked up by a disk space sensor before it becomes a problem.

pagefile-usage prtg system-managed

Created on Sep 10, 2018 11:58:30 PM



Best Answer

Accepted Answer

Votes:

0

Alternative you could see if you can write a custom PowerShell or VBScript. I think the values you are looking for are available per WMI.

It would be: RAM physically PageFileSize Calculate the difference and the value you want to see...

If Pagefile < RAM - do not report error If Pagefile >= RAM - check if Pagefile utilization > 90% (e.g.) - if true report error...

Something like that..

The factory sensor might as well be what you want - just not sure if it can give you exactly what you want to see - try it first and if not see if a script / custom sensor would help you out..

Regards

Florian Rossmark

www.it-admins.com

Created on Sep 11, 2018 7:18:57 PM



4 Replies

Votes:

1

Hi David,

Can't you just adjust the warning and error limits for the sensor - or more specific on the channel of the sensor? This should actually solve your issues and give you the control you want.

Regards

Florian Rossmark

www.it-admins.com

Created on Sep 11, 2018 1:51:34 PM



Votes:

0

I can adjust warning and error thresholds, but if it's only in one dimension it's just moving the problem around. I really need to be able to alert on "percent of percent"

Also - I see that I failed to format correctly in my original post. Here's what I meant for it to look like -

  • 99% util of a PF that's 20% the size of recommended - no big deal
  • 70% util of a PF that's 100% of the recommended size - this is something I care about
  • 50% util of a PF that's 500% of the recommended size - this is something I DEFINITELY care about

Created on Sep 11, 2018 3:10:32 PM



Votes:

0

Dear David,

with PRTG, you can alert only on channel values directly available.

You could have a look at the factory sensor. This sensor can compute a value based on multiple sources. You could compute the percentage (please use the percent() function) and then alert on those results.

Created on Sep 11, 2018 7:04:22 PM by Arne Seifert [Paessler Support]



Accepted Answer

Votes:

0

Alternative you could see if you can write a custom PowerShell or VBScript. I think the values you are looking for are available per WMI.

It would be: RAM physically PageFileSize Calculate the difference and the value you want to see...

If Pagefile < RAM - do not report error If Pagefile >= RAM - check if Pagefile utilization > 90% (e.g.) - if true report error...

Something like that..

The factory sensor might as well be what you want - just not sure if it can give you exactly what you want to see - try it first and if not see if a script / custom sensor would help you out..

Regards

Florian Rossmark

www.it-admins.com

Created on Sep 11, 2018 7:18:57 PM




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