Paging file information is not collected when set to System Managed on Windows 2008 servers

[This topic is intended to address a specific issue called out by the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool. You should apply it only to systems that have had the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool run against them and are experiencing that specific issue. The Exchange Server Analyzer Tool, available as a free download, remotely collects configuration data from each server in the topology and automatically analyzes the data. The resulting report details important configuration issues, potential problems, and nondefault product settings. By following these recommendations, you can achieve better performance, scalability, reliability, and uptime. For more information about the tool or to download the latest versions, see "Microsoft Exchange Analyzers" at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=34707.]  

Topic Last Modified: 2012-05-23

The Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer queries the Win32_PageFile Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) class to determine whether a value is set for the AutomaticManagedPagefile key. If the Analyzer finds that the value for this key on an Exchange Server server is blank, the Analyzer displays a warning.

Explanation

If the AutomaticManagedPagefile key is blank, this means that the size of the page file on the computer is being set by the computer system. Because the page file size is being set by the computer, the Analyzer does not return a value for the page file.

Recommendation

To resolve this issue, manually set the page file value to the exact size of physical memory plus 10 MB. To change the page file settings, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click System, and then click Advanced system settings.

  2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Performance.

  3. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Then, click Change under Virtual Memory.

  4. In the Virtual Memory dialog box, examine the list box under Drive [Volume Label], and then click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.

  5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size.

  6. In the Initial size (MB) and Maximum size (MB) fields, enter the recommended page file size in megabytes, and then click Set.

References

For more information about the page file size, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 2021748, How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 and or Windows 2008 R2.