Is There Really A 1.2GB Limit For .NET?

[Iblix]

Windows Server 2003
4GB RAM
..NET 1.1

I've got a process running on this machine that needs a lot of memory
and I get quite a few out-of-memory errors. What I notice is that my
process never seems to use more than 1GB of the RAM, even though I
have 4GB installed.

I heard through the grapevine that .NET does not allow a worker
process to use more than 1.2GB of RAM. Is this true?

I also heard that this is being fixed? But what will contain this fix
(the OS, a new version of ASP.NET, etc)?

I also heard that you could change the preferred load address of DLLs
to get around this? How does one go about doing this?

Thank you.

 

[Chris Rolon]

I have not heard or run into any memory ceiling. Regarding changing the DLL
load address--that is called rebasing. You will find to property for
rebasing in the Advanced section of Configuration Properties.

Chris Rolon
Principal Consultant

 

[Daniel O'Connell [C# MVP]]

There are several issues at play here. The .NET memory manager doesn't seem
to be able to allocate in all the available memory, much of that is probably
due to code and internal data structures, but I don't know the specifics.
However, unless you provide a specific boot option, windows limits a process
to 2 gigs of memory. 1.2 gigs is the approximate memory allocatable by the
..NET runtime. You can provide /3gb(I think, youl'l have to look it up)
switch at boottime, in boot.ini, to allow more memory. As I recall, the 1.1
framework supports the 3 gig option, atleast in some circumstances. On 32bit
hardware you will probably never get beyond 2.4 gigs with .NET.

 

[Iblix]

I have not heard or run into any memory ceiling. Regarding changing the DLL
load address--that is called rebasing. You will find to property for
rebasing in the Advanced section of Configuration Properties.

Chris Rolon
Principal Consultant

Configuration Properties in IIS or Visual Studio or....?

Thanks so much!

 

[Gary Milton]

Not sure if it will be of any use but there seems to be a whole discussion
on this issue here...

http://www.dotnet247.com/247reference/msgs/44/224304.aspx

Gary