Browse by Tags

• debugging
• performance
• security
• troubleshooting
• vista
• windows server 2008

The Basics of Page Faults
10 June 08 06:00 AM

In our last post, we talked about Pages and Page Tables.  Today, we’re going to take a look at one of the most common problems when dealing with virtual memory – the Page Fault.  A page fault occurs when a program requests an address on a page Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 2 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

Using Special Pool to find out who is allocating a Pool Tag
15 April 08 06:00 AM

OK, a quick disclaimer right at the start.  The steps we discuss in this post assume that you are very comfortable with kernel debugging, and in particular live debugging.  This is a bit of a niche post, but it is a question that we get every Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 1 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, debugging, troubleshooting

An Introduction to Pool Tags
11 April 08 06:00 AM

We’ve discussed several areas of Memory Management in our blog since we started. Today, we’re going to take a look at Pool Tags and how they can be used to identify the source of Pool Memory leaks. A pool tag is a four-byte character that is associated Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 0 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

Lock Pages in Memory ... do you really need it?
25 March 08 06:00 AM

Back In October, we wrote a post regarding the Event ID 333 Errors and how to troubleshoot them .  At the end of that post, we mentioned the "Lock Pages in Memory" user right.  One of the things we mentioned was that if you have an Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 3 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

WS2008: Memory Management, Dynamic Kernel Addressing, Memory Priorities and I/O Handling
07 February 08 06:00 AM

It's the end of the first week - seven days down and only  twenty more to go.  Today we will take a very brief look at some important enhancements to Memory Management, as well as talk about Dynamic Kernel Address Space, Memory Priorities and Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 1 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

WS2008: Dynamic Link Library Loader and Address Space Load Randomization
06 February 08 06:00 AM

There's only three weeks to go till Launch Day.  Today, we're going to talk about the Dynamic Link Library (DLL) Loader and Address Space Load Randomization.  In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, when talking about process and thread creation, Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 8 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, security, vista, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

WS2008: Upgrade Paths, Resource Limits & Registry Values
01 February 08 06:00 AM

It's February 1, 2008. Only twenty-six more days until Windows Server 2008 is released to the world. With that in mind, we have twenty-six posts lined up between now and February 27 covering areas of Windows Server 2008 that contain both general information Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 10 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, windows server 2008, troubleshooting

An Overview of Troubleshooting Memory Issues - Part Two
29 January 08 06:11 AM

In our last post, we looked at some common memory issues and how to troubleshoot them.  Today we're going to go over excessive paging and memory bottlenecks. We've talked about issues with the page file in several posts - something to bear in mind Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

An Overview of Troubleshooting Memory Issues
25 January 08 06:00 AM

We've talked quite a bit in the past about various memory management concepts - the use of the /3GB switch , Understanding Pool Resources , the x86 Virtual Address Space and so on.  The most common manifestation of memory issues is a memory shortage Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

What is IRQL and why is it important?
22 January 08 06:00 AM

When people first hear the term IRQL (pronounced Er-kel) their thoughts sometimes turn to the sitcom "Family Matters" and Jaleel White's alter ego, Steve Urkel.  However, we're not going to be taking a trip down Television's Memory Lane Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 2 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, debugging

Understanding Crash Dump Files
08 January 08 06:00 AM

At the end of 2007 we talked about Bugchecks and why they happen .  Today we're going to talk about the Crash Dump files themselves - the different types of dumps, how the dumps themselves are generated and why you will need a correctly sized page Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, debugging, troubleshooting

What is the Page File for anyway?
14 December 07 06:00 AM

The page file is one of those pieces of the operating system that administrators know that they need to have - but they can't always explain why they need it, or how to accurately size it.  Since Windows 95, Windows-based operating systems have used Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 16 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, troubleshooting

Memory Management - x86 Virtual Address Space
28 September 07 09:35 AM

In previous posts, we've discussed the Basics of Memory Management , Pool Resources and of course the /3GB Switch . Today we're going to take a look at the Virtual Address Space Layouts on a 32-bit system. We'll cover the 64-bit system specifics in a Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 3 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management

Sessions, Desktops and Windows Stations
24 July 07 06:21 AM

Today we are going to briefly go over the basics of some concepts that can be pretty confusing even at the best of times - Sessions, Desktops and Windows Stations. So let's dive right in ... A session consists of all of the processes and other system Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, troubleshooting

What a Heap of ... (Part Two)
29 June 07 05:14 AM

On Tuesday, we talked about Heap - what it is and how it works. Today we're going to continue our look at Heap. At the end of the last post we mentioned Look-Aside Lists and Low Fragmentation Heap. But before we dive into those, let's take a look at Heap Read More...

Postedby CC Hameed | 4 Comments    

Filed under: architecture, memory management, performance, debugging, troubleshooting