Fix: NodeRunner.exe processes consume lots of RAM (memory) and CPU

I started SharePoint 2013 development recently. Initially, I only got dual core CPU and 4 GB RAM and as you probably know, it runs very slow. I’m not curious about it cause I expect the performance when you install SharePoint 2013 with less than minimum recommended hardware specification.

Issue

Then .. I fed up with it and upgrade the RAM to 8 GB, but funny things my development box is still runs very slow. I looked into my task manager and found something like below. Several NodeRunner.exe processes consume lots of Memory and CPU.

Solution

1. Open SharePoint 2013 Management Shell and type in:
   Set-SPEnterpriseSearchService -PerformanceLevel Reduced
2. Open NodeRunner process configuration file below in Notepad
   C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office Servers15.0SearchRuntime1.0noderunner.exe.config.
   Update <nodeRunnerSettings memoryLimitMegabytes=”0″ />.
   This is the configuration to limit NodeRunner process memory usage, replace to acceptable number like 100 or 150.
3. Restart SharePoint Search Host Controller service.
   

NOTE: I’ve…