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Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

  • 1.  Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-22-2012 10:54 AM
    Our office just changed over to IMac's with
    Lion OS
    2g Graphics Cards
    16g Memory

    We have both VmFusion 4 or Parallels 7 installed for Windows applications (Autodesk Products)
    Each machine has 16g of memory and its all used up by either the end of the day or the next morning.
    The Stations start posting warnings that MAC OS has run out of memory and you must close applications or it just locks up. 
    Even after closing applications memory is not reclaimed.
    The purge command works to reclaim memory
    Have installed IClean Memory and set it to reclaim at minimal memory level to get some some of it back but it take just as long or longer to reclaim memory as just doing reboot. 

    Have
    Disconnected the machines from our LAN (Memory Leak Persists)
    Removed all VMachine Software (Leak Persists)
    Restored machine to out of box state (Leak Persists)
    Replaced all third party Memory with all Apple Memory (Leak Persists)
    Made multiple Apple suggested tweaks (Leak Persists)
    Returned one station to Apple store and they could find nothing wrong nor could they duplicate the issues. (They say it not a Lion OS issue)
    Stopped all power saving (Leak Persists)
    Made suggested adjustments in VM settings (Leak Persists) 

    Note
    The one Snow Leopard Station exhibits NO memory leaks!!!!!

    Any thoughts? Suggestions? (Other than boot the macs to the curb go back to PCs)

    -------------------------------------------
    Stephen Lilley Assoc. AIA
    AMR Architects Inc.
    Little Rock AR
    -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-23-2012 08:10 AM
    Stephen, I don't know as it's been awhile since I've used a Mac Mini to run Windows-based CAD programs.

    The only thing I can suggest is have you installed the latest Parallels version and service packs? Also, have you manually configured the RAM allowances for running your Parallels virtual machines? Parallels does allow some configuration of how much hardware resources are split between the Mac OS and any Parallels VMs. By default, I believe it splits the RAM between the two, so you might not be getting more than half of your RAM allocated to Parallels.

    I didn't like running CAD virtually through Parallels versus natively on a Windows workstation. Sometimes the cursor just wouldn't go exactly where I wanted it to go to make a selection. There were a couple of other small things that over time made me a little nuts.

    -------------------------------------------
    Kris Weeks Assoc. AIA
    Intern Architect
    Caolo & Bieniek Associates Inc.
    South Deerfield MA
    -------------------------------------------






    Original Message


  • 3.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-25-2012 06:54 AM
    I have used macs for a while (1987), but not really familiar with parallels nor boot camp. I noticed that you referred to Apple for help but what did parallels' support say to try about the restriction. Though I use boot camp with Lion with an older intel mac using a separate drive for the PC applications. I only have 8MB total ram. I'll check my memory usage after starting boot camp.

    -------------------------------------------
    James Walls AIA
    Architect
    Indianapolis IN
    -------------------------------------------






    Original Message


  • 4.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-26-2012 09:18 AM
    Stephen,

    We have PC's at the office, and I have a mac at home.  I also use an ipad, a macbook air (older) and macbook pro.  I have tried both parallels and and VM Fusion.  The problem I had with the macbook air is that it only had 4g memory.  That wasn't sufficient.  On my new macbook pro I have 12g memory, and I still run bootcamp because I dread installing all of the software and having the same problem, though I suspected it would run much better until I saw that your machines have 16g!  I just couldn't get P or VMF to work at the speed I needed it to on the 4g memory machine.  

    With P or VMF, they split the memory between the PC and Mac side when they are running.  Bootcamp utilizes all of the memory for which ever operating system you are logged in to - so it works much better.  I have considered purchasing autocad for mac so that I can run multiple programs at one time...but that would be expensive!  Plus our IT service company doesn't handle mac's.  Sorry, I have not found a fix to the issue...only had a similar experience.

    Apple does have a business division that not many people know about - they usually have a representative in their store.  Perhaps they can help as their interest is in pushing apple products for use in corporate settings.  Best of luck!
     
    -------------------------------------------
    Michael Maturo AIA
    President
    Dyami Architecture, PC
    Chestnut Rdg NY
    -------------------------------------------






    Original Message


  • 5.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-23-2012 09:56 AM
    First step is to open up Activity Monitor and click on the "Real Memory" column to sort the results by memory used.  That will show you which application is hogging the memory.  Then go from there to correct the problem.

    I've actually found that some of the worst memory hogs are some of the small programs or plugins that you'd never think about.

    -------------------------------------------
    Thomas Bank AIA
    Owner/Architect
    Simply Stated Architecture, P.C.
    Lemoyne PA
    -------------------------------------------






    Original Message


  • 6.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-23-2012 05:12 PM
    Ask Apple.

    -------------------------------------------
    Charles Graham AIA
    Architect
    O'Neal, Inc.
    Greenville SC
    -------------------------------------------






    Original Message


  • 7.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-24-2012 11:09 AM
      |   view attached
    Thanks for the suggestions and comments.

    A little more on the situation and to answer some of the questions.

    1 ~ I'm currently using the latest version of Parallels but using Windows XP

    2 ~ Ram allocation by Parallels has been restricted
    (4g out of the 24g on my system 4g out of 16g on the other 5 systems)

    3 ~ Activity Monitor does not list all of the ram being use.
    (It will only list what the programs are reporting not what they have leaked or failed to turn back over to the system)
    (The Pie chart always list more then the active Programs total listing of allocated Memory)
    (Refer to the attached screen capture) (Total used 481.1 MB or .469G + the VM Allocation = 4.469G but chart shows 5.65G used)

    4 ~ (We have literally turned on a station and not launched any Apps and watched the memory usage deplete itself to 18m) 

    5 ~ And yes we have been in aggressive discussions with the local Apple Store. (Site of Purchase) 
    (However I believe that they are hesitant to breach this with Corporate or that Corporate has no answer.)

    My reason for posting here is that we don't think our desire to utilize Mac's + a VM program is not unique and someone smarter out there has solved this problem or knows a solution.

    -------------------------------------------
    Stephen Lilley Assoc. AIA
    AMR Architects Inc.
    Little Rock AR
    -------------------------------------------





    Attachment(s)

    pdf
    Before-8-21-12-02-OvernightTest.pdf   212 KB 1 version


  • 8.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-25-2012 08:10 AM
    Have you contacted Parallels about the issue?

    Is there a reason that you're using Macs with Parallels for AutoCAD instead of using the Mac version of AutoCAD?

    -------------------------------------------
    Thomas Bank AIA
    Owner/Architect
    Simply Stated Architecture, P.C.
    Lemoyne PA
    -------------------------------------------






    Original Message


  • 9.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-25-2012 08:31 PM
     I found my machine at home was using up all its RAM, and checking its Activity Monitor showed nothing out of the ordinary.  However, using Terminal and the "top" command, I could see the System kernel was ballooning out, as was the mds process and the backupd process.  Basically, my Time Machine backup and home directory sync were sucking up all the memory.  It could be that, but whatever it is,  you will need someone with real access to your machines in situ

    Do the following:

    1. Run Terminal (from either Spotlight or System Utilities)
    2. Type "top"
    3. Press "o"
    4. Type RPRVT, press enter

    This will tell you what the top memory consumers in real terms.



    -------------------------------------------
    Edward Haysom AIA
    Director
    Haysom Architects
    Fortitude Valley BC

    -------------------------------------------






    Original Message


  • 10.  RE:Mac Work Stations ~ Memory Leak

    Posted 10-26-2012 10:32 AM
    Stephen, Macs are not made to run Windows. Keep them in their native format running their native applications and they will sing for you. AutoCAD has a Mac version. Unfortunately, AutoDesk will not allow you to switch your platform as I understand it. I purchased the Mac version of AutoCAD for our IMac and once I figured out how to use the Mac mouse it works great. I tried VM ware and found the waiting so frustrating, that I gave up. I was apprehensive about giving up on Windows, but once I did, I haven't looked back and I'm a happier man for it. Best, ------------------------------------------- Gordon Rogers AIA EAS Executive Kitchell CEM, Inc. Sacramento CA -------------------------------------------
    Original Message