A question about "There is insufficient memory available in the buffer pool"

  • My laptop with 8G memory installs SQL Server 2014 EXPRESS for 64bit. A workstation with 32G memory also installs SQL Server 2014 EXPRESS. Both computers have the same database, on which I make a data analysis.

    I run a query in the workstation, then It shows a Error "There is insufficient memory available in the buffer pool". When I run the same query in the laptop, however, It works well.

    Both SQL Server 2014 use default settings.

    In addtion, Task Manager in Window 7 shows only 5G memory are used when the workstation show the error.

    Please help me find any cue leading the workstation being out of memory.

  • qjt (1/10/2017)


    My laptop with 8G memory installs SQL Server 2014 EXPRESS for 64bit. A workstation with 32G memory also installs SQL Server 2014 EXPRESS. Both computers have the same database, on which I make a data analysis.

    I run a query in the workstation, then It shows a Error "There is insufficient memory available in the buffer pool". When I run the same query in the laptop, however, It works well.

    Both SQL Server 2014 use default settings.

    In addtion, Task Manager in Window 7 shows only 5G memory are used when the workstation show the error.

    Please help me find any cue leading the workstation being out of memory.

    The mere difference in RAM size will have the OS working rather differently, as it has a lot more "room to play with". It might choose to use a much larger fragment of the total, leaving SQL Server without quite as much resource to work with... but without SQL Profiler showing you exactly what's going on, that's just a mildly educated guess. You also made no mention of hard drive configuration or size for both machines. It's also possible that you "think" you have an "identical" install, but actually don't. Without a lot more detail, it's hard to know.

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • Thanks, SSCrazy

    I run a command "DBCC MEMORYSTATUS "

    It shows a list of use of memory

    Available Physical Memory28611772416

    Available Virtual Memory8778531528704

    Available Paging File62421553152

    Working Set2031136768

    Percent of Committed Memory in WS100

    Page Faults522152

    System physical memory high1

    System physical memory low0

    Process physical memory low0

    Process virtual memory low0

    VM Reserved16753168

    VM Committed1950752

    Locked Pages Allocated0

    Large Pages Allocated0

    Emergency Memory1024

    Emergency Memory In Use16

    Target Committed28059488

    Current Committed1950752

    Pages Allocated114648

    Pages Reserved0

    Pages Free1733072

    Pages In Use177736

    Page Alloc Potential31623496

    NUMA Growth Phase0

    Last OOM Factor9

    Last OS Error0

    Can you find some cues from this list?

  • qjt (1/11/2017)


    Thanks, SSCrazy

    I run a command "DBCC MEMORYSTATUS "

    It shows a list of use of memory

    Available Physical Memory28611772416

    Available Virtual Memory8778531528704

    Available Paging File62421553152

    Working Set2031136768

    Percent of Committed Memory in WS100

    Page Faults522152

    System physical memory high1

    System physical memory low0

    Process physical memory low0

    Process virtual memory low0

    VM Reserved16753168

    VM Committed1950752

    Locked Pages Allocated0

    Large Pages Allocated0

    Emergency Memory1024

    Emergency Memory In Use16

    Target Committed28059488

    Current Committed1950752

    Pages Allocated114648

    Pages Reserved0

    Pages Free1733072

    Pages In Use177736

    Page Alloc Potential31623496

    NUMA Growth Phase0

    Last OOM Factor9

    Last OS Error0

    Can you find some cues from this list?

    That doesn't really say much. It doesn't tell me anything about what other differences there might be between the two machines, nor does it tell me what else is installed on each. Nor does it show the same values from the other machine, nor do you even say which machine that came from. Given the values, my guess is that it's from the workstation as opposed to the laptop. Again, however, just that info isn't really much to go on. There are too many other factors to consider.

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • I am also working on a similar issue but with a little more complication:

    DBAs installed SQL Server Standard on machines with 96GB and 128GB memory
    Allowed SQL Server to take as much memory as possible.
    Now index builds give 802 error but NOT always!.
    Same index builds are fine on machines with 32GB and 24GB memory.
    Its strange that the machine with more memory gives the error.
    On analysis I see the machines have two memory nodes (0,1,64) compared to machines where it works with only 24GB and 32GB which have only one memory node (0,64).
    locked_page_allocations_kb and pages_kb from the DMV sys.dm_os_memory_nodes show more than 64GB allocated
    on 128GB machine it shows
    node locked_page_allocations_kb pages_kb
    0       55GB                                     17GB
    1       57GB                                     55GB

    on 96GB machine it shows
    node locked_page_allocations_kb pages_kb
    0       39GB                                     38GB
    1       39GB                                     39GB

    I know that folks will say - reduce the max memory to < 64GB and retry.

    What I want to know is why the error happens only sometimes and not always.

  • rkrish999 - Friday, October 27, 2017 10:06 AM

    I am also working on a similar issue but with a little more complication:

    DBAs installed SQL Server Standard on machines with 96GB and 128GB memory
    Allowed SQL Server to take as much memory as possible.
    Now index builds give 802 error but NOT always!.
    Same index builds are fine on machines with 32GB and 24GB memory.
    Its strange that the machine with more memory gives the error.
    On analysis I see the machines have two memory nodes (0,1,64) compared to machines where it works with only 24GB and 32GB which have only one memory node (0,64).
    locked_page_allocations_kb and pages_kb from the DMV sys.dm_os_memory_nodes show more than 64GB allocated
    on 128GB machine it shows
    node locked_page_allocations_kb pages_kb
    0       55GB                                     17GB
    1       57GB                                     55GB

    on 96GB machine it shows
    node locked_page_allocations_kb pages_kb
    0       39GB                                     38GB
    1       39GB                                     39GB

    I know that folks will say - reduce the max memory to < 64GB and retry.

    What I want to know is why the error happens only sometimes and not always.

    As you posted in a SQL Server 2014 forum is it safe to assume that SQL Server 2014 was installed?

  • yes its SQL Server 2014 Standard

  • rkrish999 - Friday, October 27, 2017 10:33 AM

    yes its SQL Server 2014 Standard

    Not knowing what all else may be running on each of the servers, I would consider setting the max memory for SQL Server about 20% lower than memory installed on each server and see if the problem persists.
    You need to be sure the OS has enough memory to do its job.  Starving the OS of memory can cause a variety of issues.

  • Thanks we will try that.

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