Failed Virtual Allocate Bytes: FAIL_VIRTUAL_RESERVE 524288

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Failed Virtual Allocate Bytes: FAIL_VIRTUAL_RESERVE 524288

pakman

Old Hand

Points: 302
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October 10, 2010 at 11:08 pm

#239512

Hi All,
I'm getting the following error:
"Failed Virtual Allocate Bytes: FAIL_VIRTUAL_RESERVE 524288"
I'm not sure how to configure the Startup Parameters for an instance in the Advanced options of SSCM.
Do I add the paramater to the end of the Startup Parameters?
And what number do I use for the -g parameter to allocate say 5 Gig of space (Total 8 gig on server)?
-dC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.TEST_STAGING\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf;
-eC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.TEST_STAGING\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG;
-lC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.TEST_STAGING\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf
Assumed settings:
-dC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.TEST_STAGING\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf;
-eC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.TEST_STAGING\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG;
-lC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.TEST_STAGING\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf
-g 500000
Regards,
Paul

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Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 1

Oh my, that is a seriously bad idea.

-g defines the mem-to-leave in MB, the portion of memory that SQL can use OUTSIDE the buffer pool. You're asking for the mem-to-leave to be 500GB on a server with 8GB memory. 5GB would be -g5000. If you do set the mem-to-leave to 5GB, you're limiting the size of the buffer pool (data and procedure cache) to under 3GB (OS needs memory too)

The default for mem-to-leave (iirc) is 256MB. If you're having virtual allocation problems either try upping it to 512 to start, slowly increase it. Or switch to 64 bit SQL where that's no longer an issue.

If you're having virtual memory problems, do some investigation as to what's using that memory. Mostly it'll be 3rd party linked server (ODBC/OLEDB) drivers, extended stored procedures and CLR code.

p.s. Your startup params are almost right (though scary), you need a ; after the log file name, before the -g.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 2

p.p.s. The value listed in Failed Virtual Allocate Bytes: FAIL_VIRTUAL_RESERVE is in bytes. So that's 512 kB that it needs to allocate. Far cry from 500 GB.

This may be worth a read: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlserverfaq/archive/2010/02/16/how-to-find-who-is-using-eating-up-the-virtual-address-space-on-your-sql-server.aspx

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

pakman Old Hand Points: 302 More actions · Answer 3

Thanks Gail,

I've abandon this approach and added the instance group users to the Security Settings for “Lock pages in memory” on the server.

Thank-you for your feedback, it was central to my decission.

Paul