Memory Leak Issue

Report · Sep 01, 2011

Has anyone else noticed the Adobe Connect add-in using up large amounts of RAM ? In a 40 minute Connect meeting this morning , checking task manager the ram being used by Connectaddin.exe was 1,0035,016k , so almost 1 gig of ram. I noticed that the Connect meeting room was acting sluggish , the other presenters noticed as well , and their ram for the addin was 700+meg as well.

Allowing the Connect meeting to sit idle for 15 minutes and not do any slide transitions or anything , the amount of memory used never decreases.

I have an open call with Adobe , just curious if any else experienced this issue ?

I am running Windows 7 64bit

I did flush the flash cache , delete cookies , internet cache , passwords , etc , manually cleared the temp dir , and uninstalled/ reinstalled the Connectaddin.exe.

I find it odd that the minimal specs for Connect indicate:

512MB of RAM (1GB recommended) for Windows XP or Windows 7; 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended) for Windows Vista

Report · Sep 01, 2011

I've not seen that at all. I just ran it a few times.

So, I'm seeing 118.9MB for the Connect Add-In.

Have you installed the recently updated a few weeks ago version: http://connectusers.com/downloads

I would try that as well.

While the above is from a 64-bit Mac OSX...here is my Win7 64 bit with the new Windows Host Add-In:

57MB

So, suggest re-installing...not sure why you are seeing such a large memory usage.

My Adobe Connect Server is 8.1.2 as well.

Report · Sep 02, 2011

Hi JTW Jr. -

We are experiencing a very similar behavior. After being logged in for about an hour - the console becomes very sluggish to react. Exiting and re-entering the session helps. I am curious what support tells you. Please post back if you find anything any more informaiton on this issue.

Thanks!

Report · Sep 02, 2011

I ran some tests last night , using two boxes side by side , one a Win XP 32 bit box , the other a Win 7 64 bit box.

First test was with the Win 7 64 bit machine signed in as the host , after 15 minutes the ram useage was close to 513 meg , I was only sharing a PPT slide deck I had uploaded prior , I was not doing any desktop sharing. By the end of the session , approx 30 min , the amount of ram in use was just over 1 gig.

The XP box , that did not have the connectaddin installed and was at approx 200 meg in use , this box was joined to the meeting as a participant.

Both machines are on the same version of flash (Flash version Win 10,3,183,5 )

The Win 7 box began to act slow at this point , even though I have 8 gig of ram , i5 proc with hyperthreading enabled.

I reversed roles , exited the connect meeting and logged in with the Win 7 machine as a participant , and the XP 32 bit machine as the host.

· When I entered the event as the host on my XP 32 bit machine , the ram usage was at 87meg

· @ 3 minutes : the memory of the XP machine was at 138 meg ( the Win 7 64 bit laptop that was being used for a participant connection was already showing 217 meg at this point)

· @ 4:51 : XP box at 152 meg , Win 7 64 bit participant at 242 meg

· Interesting , on the XP box , when I shared my desktop , the ram dropped to 76 meg , once the sharing actually started , the ram jumped back up to 147meg

· @9:20 approx the presentation was taking awhile to load on the XP machine, the Connect application was very slow to respond

· @ 10:46 , I did another desktop share , the ram dropped , but once I stopped desktop share and went back to a layout in connect , the resources jumped up 200%+

· At approx 12 minutes into the session , the XP machine was at 248 meg of ram , with CPU at 60% , the Win 7 64 bit laptop which was only in as an attendee was at 516meg of ram in use by the connect addin.

The memory does appear to effect Win 7 64 bit boxes more than Win XP 32 bit boxes.

What concerns me is the Connect page on Adobe.com indicates:

512MB of RAM (1GB recommended) for Windows XP or Windows 7

I was still seeing a max of 300 meg on the XP box when running as a host , and it was using 69% of the cpu processing (2.8ghx pentium 4 ) . I am worried that our external customers who will be participants , that may be running boxes with 1.5 – 2 gig, will have issues during a one hour session.

Info has been relayed to Adobe , but I have not heard anything back yet. Will update when I have more.

Report · Sep 03, 2011

"What concerns me is the Connect page on Adobe.com indicates:

512MB of RAM (1GB recommended) for Windows XP or Windows 7

I was still seeing a max of 300 meg on the XP box when running as a host , and it was using 69% of the cpu processing (2.8ghx pentium 4 ) . I am worried that our external customers who will be participants , that may be running boxes with 1.5 – 2 gig, will have issues during a one hour session.

Info has been relayed to Adobe , but I have not heard anything back yet. Will update when I have more."

JTWJr, thanks for the testing. I'm not real sure what to say. Adobe has posted that it requires 512MB ram up to 1GB for all the functions that Connect provides which is pretty reasonable taking into consideration you have file sharing, screen sharing, VTC capabilities, unlimited webcams, document sharing, muiltiple layouts, chat, note taking, breakout rooms up to 20, VOIP, and integrated audio capabilities with major audio providers. That is a lot of function which all takes memory. As you know many other vendors limit their webcams to one or just a few. Many have no way to handle video (movies) and many offer much less function for the same memory requirements.

Yes, anyone with a machine running XP and having 1-2GB ram is on the edge these days particularly when Microsoft has dropped full support for XP. With that memory configuration they really can only run the OS and Adobe Connect. The figures you provide here show your numbers to be near the same numbers or less that Adobe expects to have access to 512mb -1GB. Hard to say why the CPU usage was high. I have not seen that with Connect 8. I have not seen sluggish room behaviour either so that is a new one.

Are you running your own server or using a partner hosted server or using Adobe hosted server?

How far away are you from the server? (network latency is affected by distance and can affect room performance)

What are your network speeds? (something to look at and can be adjusted using the bandwidth [rferences by the host)

Using the newer host add-in? (posted on connectusers.com)

All other apps like Outlook turned off while using Connect? (other apps can affect any web conference tool)

Using IE9? (there have been weird IE9 behaviour by lots of other vendor solutions....have you trued other browsers to see if the same occurs)

Using wireless connections when running a session? (not recommended for anyone using any web conference tool for security and performance reasons)

Just offerting some ideas here on things that can be looked at.

Report · Sep 06, 2011

Are you running your own server or using a partner hosted server or using Adobe hosted server?

Adobe Hosted server

How far away are you from the server? (network latency is affected by distance and can affect room performance)

I dont think it is latency , as I have the same issue here at work on our network , as I do at home on my network.

What are your network speeds? (something to look at and can be adjusted using the bandwidth [rferences by the host)

at work , 1 gigabit

Using the newer host add-in? (posted on connectusers.com)

Indeed , the newest version they have available

All other apps like Outlook turned off while using Connect? (other apps can affect any web conference tool)

I tried it with all other apps closed , as well as having Outlook open. Did not notice a change , ram is still eaten up like crazy.

Using IE9? (there have been weird IE9 behaviour by lots of other vendor solutions....have you trued other browsers to see if the same occurs)

Still using IE 8 , we have not upgraded to internet exploder 9 , tried it at home using Firework with the same results.

Using wireless connections when running a session? (not recommended for anyone using any web conference tool for security and performance reasons)

Tried it both on my wirless network at home , as well as hardwired. Same results.

Report · Sep 06, 2011

I'm still confused. Your numbers are well within the stated ram requirements for using Adobe Connect. Adobe Connect needs 512MB to 1GB. I see on my machines 200 - 500MB is the norm. In some cases where many documents are being shared and video is being transmitted, and whiteboarding or screen sharing is active all at the same time you will see more ram being used. I do not think it will automatically reduce the amount because of cache and the way Flash is designed to stream the data.

Understand, compared to other web conference solutions that only use screen sharing technology, Adobe Connect is much lower in network bandwidth utlization. The norm is to share documents and those are streamed rather than screen shared. So, many of the other products out there are huge bandwidth users. They also require much the same ram usage or more depending on which feature set you choose. We and the analysts believe AC to be very competitive with others on the corporate/enterprise/government/educational market we compete in.

Report · Sep 06, 2011

I'm still confused. Your numbers are well within the stated ram requirements for using Adobe Connect. Adobe Connect needs 512MB to 1GB. I see on my machines 200 - 500MB is the norm. In some cases where many documents are being shared and video is being transmitted, and whiteboarding or screen sharing is active all at the same time you will see more ram being used. I do not think it will automatically reduce the amount because of cache and the way Flash is designed to stream the data.

Understand, compared to other web conference solutions that only use screen sharing technology, Adobe Connect is much lower in network bandwidth utlization. The norm is to share documents and those are streamed rather than screen shared. So, many of the other products out there are huge bandwidth users. They also require much the same ram usage or more depending on which feature set you choose. We and the analysts believe AC to be very competitive with others on the corporate/enterprise/government/educational market we compete in.

Report · Sep 06, 2011

This was for a 30 minute session & I am concerned that at an hour the memory used will be approaching 2 gig , since it continues to grow.

Report · Sep 06, 2011

Well, I've never seen that happen myself and I use Connect every day with customers. I've never had a customer report that memory was an issue. We have tons of major governement agencies, major corporations, and major universities that use Connect all the time and many have low memory PC's. We're not seeing the issue or seeing the memory go beyond the specs (512mb-1GB). If you have records of this happening please call into support so they can investigate. Again, that would not be the norm and that is not how the product is designed to operate.

Report · Sep 06, 2011

I have called into support & have an open ticket , gave the results I found in testing but have yet to hear anything back.

Report · Sep 07, 2011

Thanks. Please send me the ticket number so I can investigate and get back to you.

Heyward hdrummon@adobe.com

Report · Sep 14, 2011

Thanks Heywood for all your help , you are a huge asset to the Adobe team !

I am still having issues , and am going to have my laptop reformatted to see if it is something pertaining to this machine. I have had the most trouble with lockups ( Adobe Connect goes to "not responding" ) , while others have just had slowdowns.

I have been in constant contact with Adobe Support , as they call to check in often ( I believe I have you to thank for that , so thanks again ! )

It will take some time for me to get to the point where I can have my laptop reimaged by our IS dept , I need to do it while I am in between projects. I will update once I have the laptop reimaged and retest with Connect.

So far I am loving what Adobe Connect can do.

Report · Sep 14, 2011

Thanks. I try to make sure Support responds as fast as they can so issues don't fester and annoy!

If you have access to VMWare, that is another way to quickly test to see if it is something weird in your OS. Running a new instance of Windows under VMWare would tell you right away. I'd hate for you to re-image only to still see the same issue. But...when I had Windows Thinkpads it was not unusual for me to have to re-image about every 6 months becuase Windows kept getting slower and slower and corruption issues. Windows 7 seems better in that regard but I think there are still issues with Windows 7 getting bogged down after awhile.

Let me know if you want to have a test session with me.

Report · Sep 14, 2011

This laptop only has a 120 gig solid state drive , so I am removing apps I no longer use and am moving finished Captivate , Camtasia and Premiere to free up space to see if that is an issue. 2 of my other co-workers have the exact same laptop ( specs ,model , etc ) as I do and they have not have a freeze up issue where they had to leave the event and re-enter.

I am hoping to be able to solve it without reimaging , however installing VMware and a new instance of windows would take an act of congress with our IT dept.

If worst comes to work , I can copy all my data to my Lacie drive and have the laptop reimaged , but before I do I am going to do some events on my editing box to make sure that I don't have any issues there.

I am all the same apps on my editing box that I do on this laptop:

Adobe Production Premium

Adobe Captivate 5

Office 2007

Camtasia Studio

So if the issue follows me there , it may be conflicting with one of those apps.

Windows 7 does seem to bog down a bit more than XP , I am constantly clearing cache and dumping the %temp% dir at least once a day.

I will be sure to keep you informed when I have more results.

John T Wylie Jr.

Online Course Developer III ~ Sales & Service Readiness

International Game Technology

6355 S. Buffalo Drive

Las Vegas, NV 89113

Office: +1 702.669.8679

John.Wylie@igt.com

Report · Sep 14, 2011

John,

You cuased a lightbulb to go off in my brain!

A few months ago I replaced my hard drives in two Macs with SSD's. Withing weeks I noticed the running ball/applications stalling every so often. I discovered that the firmware for the SSD's needed to be upgraded as this was a known issue. In fact, with my brand of SSD, the firmware has been changed twice now.

I suggest you also take a look at the firmware version you are using on your SSD's and make sure you have the latest. This could be the issue.

Also, with SSD's it's really important that you have extra empty space free. I try to keep mine below 75% full.

Hope that may help.

Heyward

Report · Sep 14, 2011

Great idea !

I had 28 gig free of 120 when I was having the issues , I did get it down to 41 gig free of 120 , but still had the issue today.

I will see if Dell has any updated firmware for the SSD.

Will let you know once I check Dell's support page.

Report · Sep 14, 2011

Seems there are others experiencing this as well:

http://www.connectusers.com/forums/cucbb/viewtopic.php?id=5400

John T Wylie Jr.

Report · Sep 16, 2011

This has now been identified as a bug in the latest Host Add-in. It is logged and being looked at for resolution in the new add-ins being developed for Connect 8.2 and beyond.

The temporary work around is to use the ?launcher=false option to avoid loading the add-in. We realize that prevents using screen sharing and file sharing but it is a work around. This bug has not been seen but everyone. One option is to use two computers logged in as host and if you start seeing this log off that host and use the other one. Until the culprit is identified this is a workaround.

Report · Sep 16, 2011

Heyward:

Thanks for the update.....

I tried the ?launcher=false option and it did indeed work.

Appreciate all your time and effort.

Report · Jan 23, 2012

I've been in touch with with Adobe Support on a number of occasions and they have confirmed to me that there is a memory leak in 8.2. The leak only occurs when a host is using the Host Add-In and sharing a PDF file. Closing any Share Pods with PDFs in them resolves the problem.