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Lock pages in memory is again a black box for many SQL Server DBA’s. Configuration choice to enable lock pages in memory depends on various aspects.

Before we get in to internals we will recollect some of the basics of SQL Server lock pages in memory in 64-Bit SQL Servers.

What is Locked pages in memory in windows?

Its user right for windows account and can be enabled by using secpol.msc or gpedit.msc

Why do we need this privilege for SQL Server startup account?

There are 3 different memory models in 64-bit SQL Server. They are conventional ,locked pages and large pages memory model.

Locked pages memory model: In lock pages memory mode SQL Server uses allocateuserphysicalpages and mapuserphysicalpages function to allocate memory. Caller token of this function should have LPIM privilege else the function call would fail, hence you need LPIM for startup account of SQL Server  to use lock pages memory mode.

Large pages memory model: In large pages memory model I.e When you use TF834 in enterprise edition on systems with physical memory  >8GB  SQL Server uses large pages memory model. In this memory model SQL Server uses vitualalloc API with MEM_LARGE_PAGES allocation type. For using MEM_LARGE_PAGES in virtualalloc caller token must have LPIM privilege.

Memory allocated using AWE allocator API’s (or) Virtualalloc function with MEM_LARGE_PAGES are not part of Process working set ,hence cannot be paged out and not visible in private bytes or working set in task manger and Perfmon. process. Private bytes (or) Perfmon.process. working set.

What is the Advantage of using Lockedpages or Largepages? SQL Server working set (BPOOL) cannot be paged by windows  even when there is system wide memory pressure.

Disadvantage: Operating system will starve for memory when there is system wide memory pressure. OS has to completely rely on SQL Server to respond to low memory notification and scale down its memory usage . SQL Server may not respond fast enough to low memory condition at system level because OS is already starving for memory. LPIM prevents only the BPOOL from paging, Non-Bpool components can still be paged and we have critical portions of SQL Server memory like thread stack, SQL Server Images/DLL’s  in Non-Bpool which can still be paged by OS.

So many disadvantage…. But still why do we recommend LPIM in some places?

In earlier versions of windows 2003 (If This fix is not applied) when there is system wide memory pressure windows memory manger would trim one-quarter of working set of all the process. Imagine If SQL Server is using 200GB of RAM and there is system wide memory pressure, Windows memory manager would move 50 GB of SQL Server working set to page file and we would end with performance problems. If LPIM is enabled OS cannot trim. Imagine there is a faulty application/drivers in the server and it leaks memory  fast , It might consume all the memory in the server and windows memory manager might trim all of SQL Server working set.

Known issues in windows like the one in This and few in windows 2008 mentioned in  This  link can cause windows memory manager to trim the working set of SQL Server process suddenly. Windows has a background process which keeps  writing the contents of working set to page file, so when there is paging only the dirty pages  needs to be moved to the page file others are already backed by back ground process, So paging would be very fast and SQL Server working set would be moved to page file in seconds before SQL Server responds to low memory resource notification from OS causing negative performance. In systems with large amount of memory (Ex: 1 TB )we might get non yielding scheduler situations when allocating memory in conventional memory model. LPIM is only option is this case. LPIM can be used in servers in which it might take long time to identify the cause of the working set trim. It is always suggested to identify the cause of TRIM before choosing LPIM in first place. You can use the steps mentioned in This link to troubleshoot working set trims.

Note:

1. Local system account has LPIM privilege by default, so if you are using local system as startup account of SQL Server then SQL Server might be using lock pages memory model by default with out your knowledge.

2. In earlier versions of SQL Server (Till 2008R2) you need TF845 with fix in KB970070 in standard and BI edition to make use of lock pages memory model.

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