A bit detailed info about memory combining in Win10

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  1. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    From "Windows Internals" Seventh Edition:

    Memory combining

    The memory manager uses several mechanisms in an attempt to save as much RAM as possible, such as sharing pages for images, copy-on-write for data pages, and compression. In this section, we’ll take a look at yet another such mechanism called memory combining.

    The general idea is simple: Find duplicates of pages in RAM and combine them into one, thus removing the rest of the duplicates. Clearly there are a few issues to resolve:
    • What are the “best” pages to use as candidates for combining?
    • When is it appropriate to initiate memory combining?
    • Should combining be targeted at a particular process, a memory partition, or the entire system?
    • How can the combining process be made quick so it does not adversely impact normally executing code?
    • If a writeable combined page is later modified by one of its clients, how would it get a private copy?
    We’ll answer these questions throughout this section, starting with the last. The copy-on-write mechanism is used here: as long as a combined page is not written to, do nothing. If a process tries to write to the page, make a private copy for the writing process, and remove the copy-on-write flag for that newly allocated private page.

    Note Page combining can be disabled by setting a DWORD value named DisablePageCombining to 1 in the "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" registry key.

    The memory manager’s initialization routine, MmInitSystem, creates the system partition. Within the MI_PARTITION structure that describes a partition lies an array of 16 AVL trees that identify the duplicated pages. The array is sorted by the last 4 bits of a combined page CRC value. We’ll see in a moment how this fits into the algorithm.

    Two special page types are called common pages. One includes an all zero bytes, and the other includes an all one bits (filled with the byte 0xFF); their CRC is calculated just once and stored. Such pages can easily be identified when scanning pages’ contents.

    To initiate memory combining, the NtSetSystemInformation native API is called with the System-CombinePhysicalMemoryInformation system information class. The caller must have the SeProfile-SingleProcessPrivilege in its token, normally granted to the local administrators group. The argument to the API provides the following options through a combination of flags:
    • Perform memory combining on the entire (system) partition or just the current process.
    • Search for common pages (all zeros or all ones) to combine only, or any duplicate pages regardless of content.
    The input structure also provides an optional event handle that can be passed in, and if signaled (by another thread), will abort the page combining. Currently, the Superfetch service has a special thread, running in low priority (4) that initiates memory combining for the entire system partition when the user is away, or if the user is busy, every 15 minutes.

    In the Creators Update, if the amount of physical memory is higher than 3.5 GB (3584 MB), most built-in Svchost-ed services host a single service in each Svchost process. This creates dozens of processes out of the box but removes the likelihood of one service affecting another (either because of some instability or security issues). In this scenario, the Service Control Manager (SCM) uses a new option of the memory combining API, and initiates page combining in each of the Svchost processes every three minutes by utilizing a thread pool timer running with base priority of 6 (ScPerformPage-CombineOnServiceImages routine). The rationale is to try to reduce RAM consumption that may be higher than with fewer Svchost instances. Note that non-Svchost services are not page combined, nor are services running with per-user or private user accounts.

    The MiCombineIdenticalPages routine is the actual entry point to the page combining process. For each NUMA node of the memory partition, it allocates and stores a list of pages with their CRC inside the page combing support (PCS) structure, which is the one managing all the needed information for the page combining operation. (That’s the one holding the AVL trees array mentioned earlier.) The requesting thread is the one doing the work; it should run on CPUs belonging to the current NUMA node, and its affinity is modified accordingly if needed. We’ll divide the memory combining algorithm into three stages to simplify the explanation: search, classification, and page sharing. The following sections assume that a complete page combining is requested (rather than for the current process) and for all pages (not just the common pages); the other cases are similar in principle, and somewhat simpler.

    The search phase
    The goal of this initial stage is to calculate the CRC of all the physical pages. The algorithm analyses each physical page that belongs to the active, modified, or standby list, skipping the zeroed and free pages (since they are effectively unused).

    A good page candidate for memory combining should be an active non-shared page that belongs to a working set, and that should not map a paging structure. The candidate could be even in the standby or modified state, but needs to have a reference counter of 0. Basically, the system identifies three types of pages for combining: user process, paged pool, and session space. Other types of pages are skipped.

    To correctly calculate the CRC of the page, the system should map the physical page to a system address (because the process context is mostly different from the calling thread, making the page inaccessible in low user-mode addresses) using a new system PTE. The CRC of the page is then calculated with a customized algorithm (MiComputeHash64 routine), and the system PTE freed (the page is now unmapped from system address space).

    The classification phase
    When all the hashes of the pages that belong to a NUMA node have been successfully calculated, the second part of the algorithm commences. The goal of this phase is to process each CRC/PFN entry in the list and organize them in a strategic way. The page sharing algorithm must minimize the process contexts switches, and be as fast as possible.

    The MiProcessCrcList routine starts by sorting the CRC/PFN list by hash (using a quick sort algorithm). Another key data structure, combine block, is used to keep track of all the pages that share the same hash, and, more importantly, to store the new prototype PTE that will map the new combined page. Each CRC/PFN of the new sorted list is processed in order. The system needs to verify if the current hash is common (belongs to a zeroed or a complete-filled page) and if it’s equal to the previous or next hash (remember that the list is sorted). If this is not the case, the system checks if a combine block already exists in the PCS structure. If so, it means that a combined page has been already identified in a previous execution of the algorithm or in another node of the system. Otherwise it means that the CRC is unique and the page couldn’t be combined, and the algorithm continues to the next page in the list.

    If the found common hash has never been seen before, the algorithm allocates a new empty combine block (used for the master PFN) and inserts it in a list used by the actual page-sharing code (next stage). Otherwise if the hash already existed (the page is not the master copy), a reference to the combine block is added in the current CRC/PFN entry.

    At this point, the algorithm has prepared all the data that the page-sharing algorithm needs: a list of combine blocks used to store the master physical pages and their prototype PTEs, a list of CRC/PFN entries organized by the owning working set, and some physical memory needed to store the content of the new shared pages.

    The algorithm then obtains the address of the physical page (that should exist, due to the initial check performed previously by the MiCombineIdenticalPages routine) and searches a data structure used to store all the pages that belongs to the specific working set (from now on we will call this structure WS CRC node). If this doesn’t exist, it allocates a new one and inserts it in another AVL tree. The CRC/PFN and virtual address of the page are linked together inside the WS CRC node.

    After all the identified pages have been processed, the system allocates the physical memory for the new master shared pages (using an MDL), and processes each WS CRC node; for performance reasons, the candidate pages located inside the node are sorted by their original virtual address. The system is now ready to perform the actual page combining.

    The page combining phase
    The page combining phase starts with a WS CRC node structure that contains all the pages that belong to a specific working set and are all candidates for combining, and with a list of free combine blocks, used to store the prototype PTE and the actual shared page. The algorithm attaches to the target process and locks its working set (raising IRQL to dispatch level). In this way, it will be able to directly read and write each page without the need to remap it.

    The algorithm processes every CRC/PFN entry in the list, but since it’s running at dispatch level IRQL and execution could take some time, it checks if the processor has some DPCs or scheduled items in its queue (by calling KeShouldYieldProcessor) before analyzing the next entry. If the answer is yes, the algorithm does the right thing and takes appropriate precautions to maintain state.

    The actual page sharing strategy expects three possible scenarios:
    • The page is active and valid, but it contains all zeroes, so rather than combining, it replaces its PTE with a demand-zero PTE. Recall that this is the initial state of normal VirtualAlloc-like memory allocation.
    • The page is active and valid, but it is not zeroed out, meaning it has to be shared. The algorithm checks if the page has to be promoted as the master: if the CRC/PFN entry has a pointer to a valid combine block, it means that it’s not the master page; otherwise, the page is the master copy. The master page hash is rechecked and a new physical page assigned for the sharing. Otherwise, the already existing combine block is used (and its reference count incremented). The system is now ready to convert the private page into a shared one, and calls the MiConvert-PrivateToProto routine to perform the actual job.
    • The page is in the modified or standby list. In this case, it’s mapped to a system address as a valid page and its hash recalculated. The algorithm performs the same step as the previous scenario, with the only difference being that the PTE is converted from shared to prototype using the MiConvertStandbyToProto routine.
    When the sharing of the current page ends, the system inserts the combine block of the master copy into the PCS structure. This is important because the combine block becomes the link between each private PTE and the combined page.

    From private to shared PTE
    The goal of MiConvertPrivateToProto is to convert a PTE of an active and valid page. If the routine detects that the prototype PTE inside the combine block is zero, it means that the master page must be created (together with the master shared prototype PTE). It then maps the free physical page into a system address and copies the content of the private page into the new shared one. Before actually creating the shared PTE, the system should free any page file reservation and fill the PFN descriptor of the shared page. The shared PFN has the prototype bit set, and the PTE frame pointer set to the PFN of the physical page that contains the Prototype PTE. Most importantly, it has the PTE pointer set to the PTE located inside the combine block, but with the 63rd bit set to zero. This signifies to the system that the PFN belongs to a page that has been combined.

    Next, the system needs to modify the PTE of the private page so that its target PFN is set to the shared physical page, its protection mask changed to copy-on-write, and the private page PTE is marked as valid. The prototype PTE inside the combine block is marked as a valid hardware PTE too: the content is identical to the new PTE of the private page. Finally, the page file space allocated for the private page is freed and the original PFN of the private page is marked as deleted. The TLB cache is flushed and the private process working set size is decremented by one page.

    Otherwise (the prototype PTE inside the combine block is non-zero), it means that the private page should be a copy of the master one. Only the active PTE of the private page must be converted. The PFN of the shared page is mapped to a system address and the content of the two pages is compared. This is important because the CRC algorithm does not produce unique values in the general case. If the two pages don’t match, the function stops processing and returns. Otherwise, it unmaps the shared page and sets the page priority of the shared PFN to the higher of the two.

    The algorithm now calculates the new invalid software prototype PTE that should be inserted into the process private page table. To do that, it reads the address of the hardware PTE that maps the shared page (located in the combine block), shifts it, and sets the Prototype and Combined bits. A check is made that the share count of the private PFN is 1. If it is not, processing is aborted. The algorithm writes the new software PTE in the private page table of the process and decrements the share count of the page table of the old private PFN (keep in mind that an active PFN always has a pointer to its page table). The target process working set size is decremented by one page and the TLB is flushed. The old private page is moved into the transition state, and its PFN is marked for deletion.

    Finally, the system uses another trick to prevent working set trimming on the shared pages by simulating a page fault. That way the share count of the shared PFN is again incremented, and no fault would occur at a time the process will try to read the shared page. The end result is that the private PTE is again a valid hardware PTE.

    Combined pages release
    When the system needs to free a particular virtual address, it first locates the address of the PTE that maps it. The pointed PFN of a combined page has the prototype and combined bits set. The free request for a combined PFN is managed exactly like the one for a prototype PFN. The only difference is that the system (if the combined bit is set) calls MiDecrementCombinedPte after processing the prototype PFN.

    MiDecrementCombinedPte is a simple function that decrements the reference count of the combine block of the Prototype PTE. (Keep in mind that at this stage the PTE is in transition because the memory manager has already dereferenced the physical page that it maps. The share count of the physical page has already dropped to zero, and so the system put the PTE in transition.) If the reference count drops to zero, the prototype PTE will be freed, the physical page put in the free list, and the combine block returned to the combine free list of the PCS structure of the memory partition.
     
    janos666, yobooh, jura11 and 3 others like this.
  2. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    Memory page combining can be observed/disabled/enabled in elevated PowerShell:

    Get-MMAgent
    Disable-MMAgent -PageCombining
    Enable-MMAgent -PageCombining
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2018
  3. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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  4. Donduck

    Donduck Master Guru

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    Where does it say page combining is disabled by default?
     

  5. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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  6. Donduck

    Donduck Master Guru

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  7. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    "Fortunately, Microsoft turned off memory combining and the problem was resolved. Combining of zero pages can be still performed in some cases, but it's generally safe. However, the original memory combining hasn't been removed from the kernel and, moreover, the system administrator can easily enable it. To do this, you could previously use the undocumented NtSetSystemInformation function (Windows Internals GitHub contains the full implementation), but the SystemCombinePhysicalMemoryInformation class has been disabled or removed from newer Windows 10 versions (or its index has been changed)."

    No, it isn't.
     
  8. Donduck

    Donduck Master Guru

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    Why bother on this thing, 99.9% of Windows 10&11 desktop enable page combining by default, it is verifiable with Get-MMAgent.
     
  9. FatBoyNL

    FatBoyNL Ancient Guru

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    Fresh win11 install pic.
    EDIT: Nvm - about win10 :p
     

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  10. MerolaC

    MerolaC Ancient Guru

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    On my setup it was Disabled
     

  11. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    I might have some more data to add here, It looks like Windows 10 installs made prior to 2020 have it enabled and continue to have it enabled now, but installs after 2020 have it disabled
    Windows 11 upgrades from 10 and clean installs disable it.
     
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  12. MerolaC

    MerolaC Ancient Guru

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    Makes sense. My install is from this year.
     
  13. Donduck

    Donduck Master Guru

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    I clean installed Windows 11 several times this year, page combining is always enabled.
     
  14. EdKiefer

    EdKiefer Ancient Guru

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    My Win11 is like 6 months old, freshly installed and all the Get-MMAgent settings are enabled.

    PS: If you stop SysMain service all will be disabled.
     

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