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Forum for support for the Kaspersky AntiVirus for WinGate plugin
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kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Aug 31 08 6:32 am

kavass.exe consumes about 70 MB of "VM Size" as reported by Task Manager. Since there are two kavass.exe processes that's 2 x 70 MB. Why is it consuming so much? Is that normal? Up until 6 months ago kavass.exe only consumed about 24 MB, but then it starting consuming about 70 MB. I have KAV 2.0.1 with Wingate 6.2.2 build 1137 running on Win2k Adv Server sp4. Thanks, Steve

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 07 08 1:30 pm

Hi Steve

Sorry it took so long to get a reply.

Does it consume that much straight after you restart WinGate? Or does it grow to that level.

We find depending on what updates Kaspersky Labs are putting out, it does affect memory usage by the scan engines.

The fact that both engines are using the same amount indicates to me that it's not an operational problem, which would normally have a different effect on each engine.

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 08 08 3:59 am

Immediately after starting WinGate both KAVASS.exe grow to 79 MB and stay at that size. In fact, WG doesn't completely start until both KAVASS grow to 79 MB...GateKeeper shows yellow until both KAVASS reach 79 MB. Four weeks ago they were only to 70 MB, but now they are 79 MB each.

For most people 2 x 79 MB would not be an issue, but for me, with my underpowered 256 MB RAM Win2k server, it will become an issue in 6 or 12 months if KAVASS continues to grow over time.
Thanks, Steve

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 08 08 12:58 pm

Just tested and I find that exact behavior - except the size here is 81,348 K.

I know, I know. Size doesn't matter.

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 08 08 4:54 pm

OK, if that's the amount it chews when starting up, that indicates it's downloading updates and these are consuming more RAM from startup.... e.g when it builds a database in memory of signatures etc to scan for, these chew more memory as more signatures are installed.

I doubt there's much we can do about this. But I can but ask them if there's anything can be done to reduce memory footprint.

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 09 08 6:17 am

I have scheduled WG to update AV definitions every 60 mintues, so when I restart WG only the previous 60 minute's worth of AV definitions should need to be updated...which should not be many.

As additional information, for the past 4 or so years that I've been using WG/KAVSS, the footprint for KAVSS was only about 24 MB. Then about 6 or so months ago its footprint jumped to be much higher. And in the past 4 weeks it increased from 70 MB to 79 MB, so it seems to be continually growing.

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 09 08 5:41 pm

I think the things it downloads includes not just signatures, but also algorithms, which have the potential to consume a lot more memory.

It's like downloading and installing software all the time..

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 10 08 6:36 am

I understand that the KAVSS footprint may increase over time due to additional AV signatures and algorithms, but does increasing from 24 MB to 79 MB in 6 months seem like a reasonable design/implementation? Today, KAVSS is at 81 MB for me, so it increased 2 MB in about 4 days, which is about 10 MB per month. Will this 10 MB per month growth continue forever?

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Oct 16 08 12:33 am

I've put a question on this through to Kaspersky Labs SDK support, they are normally pretty responsive.

I agree, 80M / process seems high. We are seeing that on our servers as well.

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Nov 18 08 5:10 pm

Any update on this? Both of my kavss.exe are up to 86 MB. The growth seems to have slowed, but they are still growing.

Thanks, Steve

Re: kavass.exe consumes a lot of memory

Dec 11 08 12:34 pm

we got a response from Kaspersky Labs. They are looking into the problem, but their reasoning is that since the rate of new viruses is increasing, the signature database must also increase in size.

I believe they are looking to address this issue in a later version of their SDK (allowing shared access to a single database), which we are evaluating.

Adrien
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