[comp.os.vms] Pagefile fragmented error

saganich%frodo.DECnet@MGHCCC.HARVARD.EDU ("FRODO::SAGANICH") (01/30/88)

Hi Netlanders,
	I recently go a message on my uVAX/GPX that the pagefile was
badly fragmented, continuing.  The orange manuals say to install another
pagefile. Ugg.  I have two installed alread using almost 130000 blks.
Is this message meaningful?? What can/should i do about it?

The machine seems to be working fine.

Thanks
Al Saganich
Saganich%frodo.decent@mghccc.harvard.edu
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LEICHTER@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU ("Jerry Leichter ", LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU) (01/31/88)

	I recently got a message on my uVAX/GPX that the pagefile was badly
	fragmented, continuing.  The orange manuals say to install another
	pagefile. Ugg.  I have two installed alread using almost 130000 blks.
	Is this message meaningful?? What can/should i do about it?

	The machine seems to be working fine.

Check and make sure that you also have enough SWAPFILE space.  If VMS doesn't
have enough swapfile space, it will swap into the pagefile.  The allocation
mechanisms for swap and paging space are rather different, however, and they
don't mix well (which is why there are two separate files to begin with);
swapping into the page file will, indeed fragment it.

Another possibility to look at (though unlikely):  If you have SAVEDUMP set
but no dump file, VMS will dump into the page file.  The space it uses for
the dump will be unavailable for paging until released (by a COPY or RELEASE
(I'm not certain if this last is the name of a command, or a qualifier) in
ANALY/CRASH).  You can tell really quickly if there's a dump in your page file
by trying to do an ANALY/CRASH on the file - it should tell you there is no
valid dump in the file.

I'm skeptical about this last explanation because 130000 blocks is a very
large for a MicroVAX - even a full 16meg crash dump could only chew up about
33000 blocks.  I have a VS II with 10 meg and a very large PAGFILQUO and
VIRTUALPAGECNT values, and I've made my page file much larger than AUTOGEN
recommends - but even so I'm only using 22992 blocks, plus 10400 for a swap
file.  (Of course, if you create huge UIS display lists, you can chew up
page file space very quickly.)
							-- Jerry

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