SAP GUI Memory issues on Windows Terminal Server 2003!!

[Former Member]

Hi All

We are currently experiencing serious issues with our terminal servers and SAP GUI. It appears that SAP GUI is consuming a large amount of memory inorder to run, which in term is causing our terminal servers to page more.

I am not sure where to start with this issue so any help would be great!

Thanks

Phil

Loads of points if someone helps me solve this!!!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

HI,

Check your sm50. and check whoz using dialog much...

Thanks,

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

At the moment our ECC landscape seems to be ok (if has a few issues but nothing major, dailog is only av 450).

Basically we have 20 Terminal Servers supporting approx 2000 SAP users, the other applications they use are Outlook 2003 and Open Office. After looking at the performance of these servers the physcial memory is full and it appears to be paging to disk.

Options we have are:

1. Citrix (obviously)

2. Increase the TS farm

In the short term we are looking at reducing the amout of transaction screens they can have open at any one time (default is 6). I just want to try and find out if there is anything we can do on the TS servers to reduce the memory used by SAP GUI.

Currently our version is:

640 Final Release

File Version: 6405.5.23.1024

Build: 880131

Patch Level 23

Hope this help set the scene!

Cheers

Phil

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

Citrix won´t help much, it´s "just" a different protocol between the client and the server, Citrix itself will use even more memory.

Why are you sure, that the reason for this is the SAPGUI and not any other Office program?

Let´s calculate:

I´m writing this message on a TS too. My Outlook (2003) consumes ~ 32 MB memory (incl. virtual), I have 4 SAPGUI windows open which consume 64 MB and some telnet sessions (no Word, Excel etc.)

Let say roughly 128 MB all in all.

If you have 2000 users with 20 servers, means, 100 users on one server, that would be 12,8 GB memory - not caclulated other services running on that box (printserver etc.) including the operating system itself.

If your users have Internet Explorer (or other browsers) open too, you will need to add that amount too. 128 MB per user is the minimum.

If users use BEx (or other .NET based BI developer tools), that amount will doubled (at least).

SAP recommends a PC with at least 256 MB memory to run a SAPGUI with acceptable performance, do you have that much per users? How big are your single servers?

--

Markus

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

OK, I see what you mean - to be honest I am not 100% sure and I want to be proved wrong!

One of our average TS are:

HP Proliant DL580 G2

4GB RAM

Dual Intel Xeon 2.7 Ghz

Windows 2003 Standard Edition

All of our users run Open Office aswell as SAP GUI - I know Open Office is very memory hungry and they all connect to TS via HP Thin Clients or 'Thinstars'

In regards to your comment

<i>If you have 2000 users with 20 servers, means, 100 users on one server, that would be 12,8 GB memory - not caclulated other services running on that box (printserver etc.) including the operating system itself. '</i>

I have been told (I know very little about TS setup) that we can only use 4GB RAM in a TS Server.

Hope this helps!

BTW: Thank you for your help Markus

Thanks

Phil

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

Terminal Servers on Windows 2003 are normal servers, memory is not restricted but by the edition (Standard/Enterprise) you are using.

Logon to the console and open task manager, add the "maximum memory" column in the process overview and sort by that. Sum up what you see there and you will see quickly, how much memory is used.

If you sum that, how much to you see?

--

Markus

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately at the moment we have no users on but I can let you know tomorrow!

However I am assuming that if there is a memory shortage and we have set the /3GB switch then we could increase the RAM in the TS Servers?

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

No, the /3GB switch enables 3 GB <b>per process</b>, it has no influence on the total memory of the machine.

To enable more than 4 GB memory you need a different Windows edition, check

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/evaluate/features/compare.mspx

--

Markus

[markus_doehr2]

Without knowing number of users, sizing of your terminalserver etc. it's impossible to suggest something.

SAPGUI consumes, depending on the applications used, quite a big amount of memory.

--

Markus