performancememory-leaksperformancecounterperfmonmemory-leak-detector

Perfmon counters to check memory leak

I want to check the memory leakage issue in my service. I have tried following set of perfmon counters.

  1. .NET CLR Memory\# Bytes in all Heaps
  2. .NET CLR Memory\Gen 2 Heap Size
  3. .NET CLR Memory\# GC handles
  4. .NET CLR Memory\# of Pinned Objects
  5. .NET CLR Memory\# total committed Bytes
  6. .NET CLR Memory\# total reserved Bytes
  7. .NET CLR Memory\Large Object Heap size

I have referred above set from here

Also referred following set:

  1. Memory/Available Bytes
  2. Memory/Committed Bytes
  3. Process/Private Bytes
  4. Process/Page File Bytes
  5. Process/Handle Count

I have referred above set from here

Is there any parameter/criteria or any other best way to identify perfmon counter for memory leak?
Can any one suggest me set of counters to check memory leak? Or above sets covers memory leak?

Solution

  • To detect a memory leak using Performance Monitor, monitor these counters:

    1. The Memory/Available Bytes counter lets you view the total number of bytes of available memory. This value normally fluctuates, but if you have an application with the memory leak, it will decrease over time.
    2. TheMemory/Committed Bytes counter will steadily rise if a memory leak is occurring, because as the number of available bytes of memory decreases, the number of committed bytes increases.
    3. The Process/Private Bytes counter displays the number of bytes reserved exclusively for a specific process. If a memory leak is occurring, this value will tend to steadily rise.
    4. The Process/Page File Bytes counter displays the size of the pagefile. Windows uses virtual memory (the pagefile) to supplement a machine's physical memory. As a machine's physical memory begins to fill up, pages of memory are moved to the pagefile. It is normal for the pagefile to be used even on machines with plenty of memory. But if the size of the pagefile steadily increases, that's a good sign a memory leak is occurring.
    5. I also want to mention the Process/Handle Count counter. Applications use handles to identify resources that they must access. If a memory leak is occurring, an application will often create additional handles to identify memory resources. So a rise in the handle count might indicate a memory leak. However, not all memory leaks will result in a rise in the handle count.

    Source

    In my experience this is accurate.

    I'd also refer you to this Microsoft Advanced Debugging blog by Tess, a Microsoft employee. Who suggests the following counters. I have found the above to be more than enough to indicate a memory leak is present but I trust that Tess's instructions could provide a more indepth insight into the issue.

    Debugging Demos - Memory Review Updated link