Unable to allocate RAM. Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service 0x800705AA Topic is solved

[Widdershins]

Windows OS: Windows Enterprise 1909 build 18363.1500
Hardware Information Dell Workstation 7610
    CPU: E52680 V2
    Main Board: OEM Dell (Intel C602 chipset)
    Memory: 256GB ECC
    Hard Drives: 3
PrimoCache Version: 3.2.0.1 kernel

Screenshot(s) of your PrimoCache's main dialog showing cache configuration and statistics:


Problem Description:

I have a 3 PC personal license. I have a Dell 7610 gaming PC with a couple CPUs and 256GB of ECC RAM inbuilt. My default setup has been to keep my 3 drives L1 cached using a total of 130GB of the RAM. Recently I've been toying with Hyper V to test different Linux Distros and Windows Sandbox etc.

My observation. After the 130GB L1 caching, I still have 90GB of RAM available to boot Hyper Vs. So I boot a single Hyper-V configured with static 10GB of RAM. When I attempt to boot a second Hyper-V with 10GB of RAM I'm presented an error dialogue:

"Unable to allocate MB of RAM insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service 0x800705AA"



This is despite having 80GB of RAM available since 10GB successfully allocated and booted the first VM successfully. (Also, Windows page file is set to "system managed for both the C drive and separate VHDs drive. Each has 100+ GB of storage free.)

When I remove a L1 cache from one of my drives to free up 40GB of RAM, then both VMs (10GB RAM each) boot up without error.

Perhaps more significant is weeks past I'd done 2 separate fresh Windows 10 installs (BIOS MODE and EFI MODE) of 20H1 with ISOs direct from Microsoft and Windows updates kept failing ceaselessly for days on each Windows 10 VM. I troubleshot the Windows Update problem exhaustively at that time and took a break again until today. Today I did Hyper V installs with 20H2 media direct from Microsoft (BIOS MODE and EFI MODE again) and the same problem of Windows Updates failing to install presents again. Curiously as soon as I released the 40GB from PrimoCache I was able to boot up both VMs successfully. I just tested updating Windows on one of the VMs and it fully updated successfully.

Since the Hyper-V and Windows update behaviors immediately changed upon releasing RAM from PrimoCache, I'm concerned PrimoCache caching has been somehow corrupting my tasks? Is there a beta download link for PrimoCache that may fix this?

[Support]

How many CPUs installed on your workstation? Is your workstation a NUMA system?
Another possible cause is related to ReFS. PrimoCache might have the compatibility issue with ReFS file system. We are still checking this.

[Widdershins]

Dell 7610 gaming PC with a couple CPUs and 256GB of ECC RAM inbuilt. I don't know what NUMA is.

My brother is also uses PrimoCache on his Dell 3610 gaming PC. It has a cached games REFS volume as well but that PC only has one CPU with 128GB of ECC RAM inbuilt. I haven't heard him mention any ill behaviors like I'm observing, but I'll double check with him tomorrow.

[Widdershins]

I talked to my brother today. He says he hasn't observed any problems with caching the REFS volume on his desktop anyways. I googled the phrase "hyper v numa" which led me to the below setting. However, that setting being enabled didn't make any difference regarding not being able to start a second VM on my T7610 desktop if I have my 3 drives cached as I've originally described.

[Support]

If your system is a numa system, the possible cause is that PrimoCache occupied too much RAM owned by one node. You may check the bios settings to see if there are options for NUMA mode, something like "node interleaving" to disable NUMA.
If you don't find such options, you may enable numa-aware for PrimoCache (4.0+). In the PrimoCache CLI and use the command "rxpcc set NumaAware 1". This will make PrimoCache requests RAM from each node evenly. Regarding the CLI, please see https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/pri ... rface.html
Hope this helps.

[Widdershins]

Okay. So my BIOS has a NUMA toggle as follows:



I tested memory function with NUMA on vs off



I left NUMA on in my BIOS and the command you provided did return the following:

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\PrimoCache>rxpcc set NumaAware 1
Success: The option 'NumaAware' is set to '1'!
Please restart the computer to apply the change.

However, it doesn't seem that rxpcc status gives indication as to NumaAware thereafter.

So how did PrimoCache allocate cache resources before when NumaAware was off? Specifically when a person has cache tasks exceeding the RAM installed with a specific processor. E.G. CPU1 and CPU2 both have 128GB installed in their memory channels but PrimoCache has 180GB of cache tasks. I expect the resource availability thing should no longer be an issue.

Yet, I still don't understand why I it seemed highly likely I was experiencing memory corruption impeding the VMs. I even allowed MemTest86 pro to run over a weekend and didn't pickup any ECC errors. To be extra certain I even swapped the dimms since all of our PCs in the house use the exact same RDIMMS.

I appreciate your help.

[Support]

I'm really sorry that I just remembered that numa-aware feature is only available in the Server edition v4.x. By default the memory allocation for L1 cache is determined by Windows itself. So it is possible that Windows allocates too much RAM from one code, thus later when other applications request RAM from that node, insufficient error might happen. With NumaAware enabled, PrimoCache tries to allocate RAM evenly from each node, which likes that NUMA is off. You may turn off NUMA in the bios and check if this problem still exists or not.

[Widdershins]

In the screenshot of the the BIOS page I'd shared it alerts to the performance changes and how the memory is interleaved when NUMA is off. Hence the screenshot of of testing memory access bandwidth. It went from 80GB/s (NUMA ON) to 55GB/s (NUMA OFF) so I'm pretty sure I don't want to disable NUMA. It's also the default for this desktop BIOS and the default for Windows 10. Apparently NUMA has been inbuilt in Windows all the way back to Windows XP SP2.

You mention server edition. Yet, I updated the desktop edition to 4.1 and executed the command line instruction like you indicated and it responded as if it was to go into effect on reboot.

C:\Program Files\PrimoCache>rxpcc set NumaAware 1
Success: The option 'NumaAware' is set to '1'!
Please restart the computer to apply the change.

Are you saying the command line instruction response was a false response and there isn't a means to confirm if it's active or not?

My anecdotal suspicion was that it is actually in effect because I ran a quick test by toggling two VMs to 30GB each (with the 130GB cache already in effect) and the VMs booted up successfully.

When my brother purchased primocache for us, he'd just followed the "Which edition should we choose page" because we're just gamers and don't mess with server operating systems.



https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/pri ... ition.html

Please confirm NUMA is in fact working with PrimoCache desktop? If there is a beta version of it or something that you'd like me to test that it's functioning I'm happy to do that. I appreciate your help.

[Support]

I checked with our developer and confirm that currently the desktop edition doesn't support NUMA-aware. We will support this feature for desktop Windows. But I have no idea why it seems taking effect in your scenario...

[Widdershins]

Humm. My PC hasn't crashed and doesn't seem to have corruption since running "set rxpcc set NumaAware 1" and rebooting a couple days past. Do I need to run "set rxpcc set NumaAware 0" to avoid any possible ill behaviors?

You mention it will be officially available in the next releases. For now I just subscribed to the PrimoCache 4.1.0 released forum thread to see if incidentally someone mentions the availability of the next release. Yet, it would be more efficient if there more concise way to be alerted when new releases come available...E.G. the PrimoCache app itself presenting a new release banner or perhaps a separate forum thread that users can subscribe to that is solely dedicated to alerting to new releases.

I appreciate your help.