SQL Server Error 17890

Error number

17890

Severity

10 (informational)

State

Not documented by Microsoft (not reproduced here)

Product

Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine

Versions

SQL Server on Windows, all supported versions (2016 to 2025)

Category

Memory

Last reviewed

24 October 2026

What it means

Error 17890 is an informational warning in the SQL Server error log: Windows has moved a large part of SQL Server's memory to the page file, so queries that touch that memory become slow.

SQL Server keeps an eye on its own process. When the working set (the part of its memory that is actually in RAM) falls below half of the memory it has committed, it writes 17890 to the error log and the Windows Application event log. Severity 10 means information only: no query fails because of it, but reading data that now sits in the page file costs disk I/O, so the whole instance can suddenly feel slow.

Read the numbers in the message: Working set and committed are in KB, and memory utilization is working set as a percentage of committed (in the example, about 3.2 GB of 8.7 GB, 37%). Duration is how long the condition has lasted. The cause lies outside SQL Server: Microsoft lists other applications exhausting physical memory, device drivers that make Windows trim every process, and operating system issues.

Common causes

• Other applications or services on the server suddenly needing a lot of memory, so Windows trims the working sets of running processes, SQL Server included.
• A large system file cache (for example from big file copies on the server) growing and pushing process memory out to the page file.
• A device driver that requests memory in a way that makes Windows page out the working set of all processes.
• Max server memory set so high that Windows and other processes have too little room.

Diagnose it

Read-only These queries only read metadata and dynamic management views. They do not change data, permissions or configuration, so they are safe to run first.

SELECT physical_memory_in_use_kb / 1024 AS in_use_mb,
       locked_page_allocations_kb / 1024 AS locked_mb,
       memory_utilization_percentage,
       page_fault_count,
       process_physical_memory_low
FROM sys.dm_os_process_memory;

SELECT total_physical_memory_kb / 1024 AS total_mb,
       available_physical_memory_kb / 1024 AS available_mb,
       system_cache_kb / 1024 AS system_cache_mb,
       available_page_file_kb / 1024 AS available_page_file_mb,
       system_memory_state_desc
FROM sys.dm_os_sys_memory;

SELECT TOP (20)
       DATEADD(MILLISECOND, rb.[timestamp] - si.ms_ticks, SYSDATETIME()) AS approx_event_time,
       x.r.value('(Record/ResourceMonitor/Notification)[1]', 'varchar(60)') AS notification,
       x.r.value('(Record/ResourceMonitor/IndicatorsProcess)[1]', 'int') AS indicators_process,
       x.r.value('(Record/ResourceMonitor/IndicatorsSystem)[1]', 'int') AS indicators_system,
       x.r.value('(Record/MemoryRecord/AvailablePhysicalMemory)[1]', 'bigint') / 1024 AS available_physical_mb
FROM sys.dm_os_ring_buffers AS rb
CROSS JOIN sys.dm_os_sys_info AS si
CROSS APPLY (SELECT CAST(rb.record AS XML)) AS x(r)
WHERE rb.ring_buffer_type = N'RING_BUFFER_RESOURCE_MONITOR'
  AND rb.record LIKE N'%RESOURCE_MEMPHYSICAL_LOW%'
ORDER BY rb.[timestamp] DESC;

SELECT sql_memory_model_desc,
       committed_kb / 1024 AS committed_mb,
       committed_target_kb / 1024 AS target_mb
FROM sys.dm_os_sys_info;

SELECT name, value_in_use
FROM sys.configurations
WHERE name = N'max server memory (MB)';

How to fix it

Each fix is labelled with what it changes. Try read-only checks and the least invasive fix first, and test changes outside production.

-- Only with a value chosen from measurements (example: 28 GB on a 32 GB server)
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory (MB)', 28672;
RECONFIGURE;

Examples

The warning in the SQL Server error log

Shown as documented by Microsoft (the numbers are Microsoft's example); not reproduced here, because it needs Windows to page out SQL Server memory. It appears in the error log and the Windows Application event log, not in a query window. The state was not observed, so no header is shown.

-- No statement raises 17890: it is logged when Windows trims the SQL Server working set

A significant part of SQL Server process memory has been paged out. This may result in a performance degradation. Duration: 0 seconds. Working set (KB): 3383250, committed (KB): 9112480, memory utilization: 37%.

How to prevent it

Run SQL Server on a server where its memory needs are planned: set max server memory so Windows and any other services have headroom, avoid large file copies and memory-hungry tools on the database server during busy hours, and keep drivers up to date.

Alert on 17890 in the error log and on low available memory in Performance Monitor, so you can match each occurrence with what else was running at the time.

Common questions

Learn more on CodeWithSQL

• Performance tuning

Official documentation

• MSSQLSERVER_17890 (Microsoft Learn)
• Enable the Lock pages in memory option
• sys.dm_os_process_memory
• Server memory configuration options

Last technically reviewed 24 October 2026; examples and diagnostics run on SQL Server 2025 (17.0.1145.4). Message text checked against the engine's sys.messages catalogue.