Total Memory vs. Target Memory on SQL Server 64-bit Standard Edition

  • Hello!

    We have installed SQL Server 2005 64-bit Standard Edition on two node cluster (Windows 2003 EE) with 32GB or RAM. I have limited SQL Server memory usage to 26GB. I am looking at perfmon Target Server Memory (KB) - 27262976 and Total Server Memory (KB) - 3228128 counters under SQLServer: Memory Manager. I am puzzled as to why SQL Server is unable to consume all memory it is 'willing to consume'.

    Since this is 64-bit Standard Edition, I can't configure 'lock pages in memory' privilege.

    Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Igor

  • A likely reason is that SQL Server hasn't needed more memory than the 3 GB is is currently using. It will not allocate memory until it has a need for it.

  • You are right, Michael! I executed DBCC CHECKDB and see numbers going up.

    Thanks,

    Igor

  • Select 27262976 / 1024 / 1024;

    Why do you think the system is not using 26GB of memory?

    Jeffrey Williams
    “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

    ― Charles R. Swindoll

    How to post questions to get better answers faster
    Managing Transaction Logs

  • BTW - setting max memory to 26GB may be too high for Standard edition. You'll want to monitor the system and lower the max memory if you start to see SQL Server swapping out to the page file.

    You should run DBCC MEMORYSTATUS instead - it will show how much memory is actually being used.

    Jeffrey Williams
    “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

    ― Charles R. Swindoll

    How to post questions to get better answers faster
    Managing Transaction Logs

  • Jeffrey Williams (1/28/2009)


    Select 27262976 / 1024 / 1024;

    Why do you think the system is not using 26GB of memory?

    That is the Target memory. The Total Server Memory is the amount it is actually using.

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