Memory problems with SAS in Windows 7 64bit

[vchagas]

Our IT decided that 64 bit is the way to go (only for the OS that is) so they "upgraded" our XP systems.

What happened?

The OS file cache tried to put our entire files into memory ... wonder what happened?

Our biggest SAS jobs started to take much moooore time to run and the computer is useless to do anything else while it runs because memory usage goes to 97%.

For now ... the actuarial department "upgraded" to the new XP 32 bit



Any similar experiences? Ideas?

[AndrewC]

I agree with your IT department that 64 bit is the way to go; I love my 16 GB machine.

Do you know how to do a performance profile on your SAS jobs? Once you (or your IT deparment) do a performance profile and find out where the problem is; it will be eaiser to find a potential solution.

How much memory do you have on your machine? How big is your data set? Did you upgrade SAS as well?

[vchagas]

Originally Posted by AndrewC

I agree with your IT department that 64 bit is the way to go; I love my 16 GB machine.

I would love to have that

Originally Posted by AndrewC

Do you know how to do a performance profile on your SAS jobs? Once you (or your IT deparment) do a performance profile and find out where the problem is; it will be eaiser to find a potential solution.

Yes I know how to do it, but the problem only occurs in W7 64bit, in both 32 and 64 bit SAS. I gave IT a process to run, so they can play with it.

The interesting thing is that they run just fine in XP/W7 32bit.

Originally Posted by AndrewC

How much memory do you have on your machine? How big is your data set? Did you upgrade SAS as well?

Unfortunately IT thinks that 4GB is enough, for what they do it's probably enough.

My largest data set is around 24GB.

And we are using regular laptops

[T-roy Boy]

We just had an excel file/model that has the SAS add in where we link the tables from SAS into excel just explode. I wonder if this is the culprit.

[AndrewC]

Have you used Scatter Gather I/O to bypass file cache?

[we7dude]

with Win 7 64bit and 64bit sas, the more memory you have the better. If IT thinks 4gb is enough, then they totally miss the point of having 64bit os.

[AndrewC]

Originally Posted by we7dude

with Win 7 64bit and 64bit sas, the more memory you have the better. If IT thinks 4gb is enough, then they totally miss the point of having 64bit os.

And memory is cheap! There are many applications that can benefit from extra memory. I even created a 2GB RAM disk as temp folder.

[we7dude]

at work I have 24gb ddr3 1333mhz, not the fastest one but it does all the jobs well. lots of the sas procedures are heavily depending on size of memory, such as proc sort, proc means...etc.

I think IT's concerns are that they may need to re-order you a new machine with more memory slots so they don't want to bother??

[AndrewC]

Most desktops have 4 memory slots and even if your machine has 2 memory slot, you can still have 16 GB for $150.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=72...acture=Corsair

The benefits are just hudge!

24GB.... That's a lot!

[vchagas]

Originally Posted by AndrewC

Have you used Scatter Gather I/O to bypass file cache?

Yes, I tried that and also this

http://support.sas.com/kb/39/615.html

with no results whatsoever.

Originally Posted by we7dude

If IT thinks 4gb is enough, then they totally miss the point of having 64bit os.

I told them that in several distinct occasions.

Originally Posted by we7dude

I think IT's concerns are that they may need to re-order you a new machine with more memory slots so they don't want to bother??

The «machine» is always a problem, they just buy two different laptop models. Our only victory was to get a 500Gb HD instead of the 160Gb standard.

My new fight is to upgrade at least to 8GB RAM (the maximum possible for almost all laptops in the office) and mine to 16 GB (it's heavier so it can handle more memory ).

The strangest thing is that I don't see anyone complaining about this problem.