SNMP Leaks Memory If the OID Cannot Be Decoded

Over time, the Windows NT system responsiveness appears sluggish, and Clients may report a gradual decrease in system performance.

By tracking the amount of Private Bytes for Snmp.exe, it can be observed that, over time, it increases without decreasing. This is viewable using Windows NT Performance Monitor by selecting the following counter to monitor:

If SNMP cannot decode an OID from a network packet, SNMP does not free up the memory, resulting in a memory leak in the Snmp.exe processes. The impact of this leak will be more evident on a system running on a network segment that receive lots of SNMP broadcast traffic.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.