windows_exporter/docs/runbooks/windowsmemorycommithighusage.md

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WindowsMemoryCommitHighUsage

Meaning

Committed memory exceeds the configured percentage of the system commit limit for 15 minutes. The default threshold is 90%. The commit limit depends on physical memory and pagefile capacity.

Impact

The system may reject new memory commitments, causing application failures even when some physical memory remains available.

Diagnosis

1. Inspect windows:memory_committed:ratio, windows_memory_committed_bytes, and windows_memory_commit_limit_bytes. Determine whether committed bytes increased or the limit decreased.

2. In Task Manager or Resource Monitor, inspect per-process commit size and look for persistent growth. Check recent workload and deployment changes.

3. Inspect pagefile configuration and the free space on its volumes:

   Get-CimInstance Win32_PageFileUsage
   Get-CimInstance Win32_PageFileSetting
   Get-Volume
   

4. Check physical memory pressure and paging alongside this alert. The recording rule omits invalid zero commit limits rather than reporting infinity.

Mitigation

Reduce memory commitments or address the leaking process. Restore pagefile capacity and disk free space when the commit limit is unexpectedly low. Review pagefile sizing with the workload owner; some changes require a reboot. Add physical memory for sustained demand. Confirm committed bytes remain safely below the commit limit and applications can allocate memory normally.