SQL 2005 x64 on Windows 2003 x64

  • OK, I'm a litle stumped here. I have installed SQL 2005 on an Itanium build and I have set the RAM to use a boatload of ram 8192MB by setting the Min RAM and MAx RAM as well as AWE and in task manager it shows the SQL service using 8192MB. Itanium is ia64, that I understand and that's good.

    My issue is, on a Windows 2003 Server x64 and SQL 2005 x64 build and with identical settings as above, the sql service shows only ~110MB used.

    What gives?

    I thought on an x64 buld it woiuld show the entire usage of the sql service as 8192MB and SQL would use the RAM?

  • Warren Peace (9/5/2008)


    OK, I'm a litle stumped here. I have installed SQL 2005 on an Itanium build and I have set the RAM to use a boatload of ram 8192MB by setting the Min RAM and MAx RAM as well as AWE and in task manager it shows the SQL service using 8192MB. Itanium is ia64, that I understand and that's good.

    My issue is, on a Windows 2003 Server x64 and SQL 2005 x64 build and with identical settings as above, the sql service shows only ~110MB used.

    What gives?

    I thought on an x64 buld it woiuld show the entire usage of the sql service as 8192MB and SQL would use the RAM?

    - don't use the same number for Min and Max ! (just learned that from Gail) It hinders SQLserver memory management.

    - With 64 bit, you don't need to enable AWE ! That 's just the whole point of 64 bit.

    - You need to use the memory DMVs or the perfmon counters to find our what memory your instance is using !

    - Leave enough RAM for the other processes (OS, SQLAgent, ...) to run on your server !

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
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  • I understand that SQL server will not use all the allocated memory at a particular point of time. It uses only the required amount of memory, which at this point of time is less for your server.

  • I guess I should've mentioned there's 16GB of RAM on the server. So if the purpose of 64bit is not to need AWE then why would I need to use DMV's to see the actual usage?

    I'll change the MAX RAM to 12288MB and see what happens.

  • Then why on an Itanium based build does it show correctly in the task manager?

  • could it be probably that there is more activity on the itanium one, that it requires the max allocated memory

  • X64 is not Itanium, but is 64 bit.

    64-bit can directly address way more than 16Gb http://techreport.com/articles.x/8131/2 or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64

    Thats why you don't need to enable AWE anymore on 64-bit.

    You need to use windows perfmon [striketrough]profiler[/striketrough] or sqlserver dmvs to get correct memory info.

    There is another forum thread containing interesting links for 64-bit considerations. http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic562424-360-1.aspx .

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
    - How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

    - How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

    press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

    Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

    Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

  • Personally, I've always preferred using perfmon for checking SQL's memory. I just don't trust task manager.

    I just tested out on my desktop (Vista 64 running SQL 64 bit) Task manager showed 112 MB, perfmon (total server memory) showed 2.9 GB

    The other thing to consider is that even if you set the min memory, there's no guarantee that SQL will allocate that memory. What that setting means is that once the server takes that much memory, it will not drop below it again. (SQL 2005, 2008)

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Thanks for the reply. MS was never clear on that setting. I am using Idera DM now to get the SQL memory usage and it matches what perfmon gives. We've had Idera for quite a while and never thought to use it till now.

    I know....DUH!

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