Experiencing memory issues when connecting to Exchange Online Management using C#

Question

I am experiencing memory issues when connecting to Exchange Online Management using C#. The process involves executing commands such as Get-User, Get-DistributionGroupMember, Add-DistributionGroupMember, and Remove-DistributionGroupMember. After each Exchange connection, there is a memory spike that does not reduce, and with every new connection, the spike increases.

I have tried all suggested ways to connect to Exchange Online as recommended by Microsoft here: Reducing Memory Consumption of the Exchange Online PowerShell V3 module.

Docker Base Image: I use the base image mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0, which runs on a Linux container. I assumed the memory issue was caused by the OS, so I changed the Docker image to a Windows base image: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0-windowsservercore-ltsc2022. This change reduced memory usage but did not resolve the continuous memory spikes after each connection.

Exchange Module Version:I downgraded the Exchange module from version 3.5.0 to 3.4.0, but this did not improve the situation.

Garbage Collection:I attempted to run garbage collection forcefully, but this had no effect on memory consumption.

Despite these efforts, I continue to face significant memory consumption that impacts performance. Any guidance on troubleshooting and resolving these memory issues would be greatly appreciated.

dotnet : 8.0 packages : <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Identity.Client" Version="4.56.0" /> <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.PowerShell.SDK" Version="7.4.0" /> <PackageReference Include="System.Management.Automation" Version="7.4.0" />

Answer 1

Hi @Vishali Gupta,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

Please kindly understand that the Exchange Online tag here we mainly focus on general issues about Exchange Online. Looks like your issue is more related to the code.

However, I have the followings to share with you for your issue. You can check your code and optimize it to solve the memory issue. And instead of creating a new connection for each command invocation, try to reuse the same connection session if possible. Ensure that only necessary modules are loaded into your PowerShell run space to reduce memory usage.

Also, you could refer to documentation for the Exchange Online PowerShell V3 module About the Exchange Online PowerShell V3 module | Microsoft Learn for more information.

If my answer is helpful to you, please mark it as the answer so that other users can refer to it. Thank you for your support and understanding.