Virtual memory configure low in Window 2003 64 bit and SQL 2005 64bit environment.

  • Hi all,

    Did any one know what is the impact for this configuration in a Database server?

    OS: Windows 2003 R2 64 bit

    DB: SQL 2005 64 bit.

    RAM: 16 GB

    Virtual Memory (Page file): 4GB

    Max Server memory: 12GB.

    MSDTC is in use.

    The SQL Server self seems fine, but the web application run slow.

    Thanks in advance.

    William

  • This looks good to me - but, here are the questions I would ask:

    1) Is this an upgrade from 2000? If so, have you updated statistics/rebuilt indexes/etc...

    2) Is this a dedicated SQL Server - or do you have another application running?

    3) Did you set lock pages in memory in group policy?

    4) Do you have a high volume of distributed transactions? If, can you increase the page file?

    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

  • Jeffery,

    Thanks for your reply.

    1)This is a new install.

    2) a kind of dedicate SQL Server box, other components should not use much memory.

    3) didn't set Lock pages in memory option. Not SQL memory pressure so far from our testing.

    4) The volume of distributed transactions is expected high and we can increase page file size.

    The concern is that SQL Server suppose to manage memory automatically and release memory back to system if it not use it and system need memory. We have seen system complain that OS free memory is low (over 95% OS memory been used). But SQL Server still use its max 12 GB(most are free).

    Thanks,

    William

  • Is this SQL Server 2005 Standard edition? If it is, you may need to drop the max memory even more. With 16GB of memory available, you might find that 10GB or less is the right amount to avoid any issues.

    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

  • I thought that 12GB should be fine for a max there. This is 64bit, so there shouldn't be paging of RAM in and out of the 4GB space.

    What is requiring RAM on the OS?

  • I am not sure what the problem is - but when running SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition (x64) there are issues when you have lots of memory.

    I know that I have seen where some people have had to drop the max memory significantly to eliminate notifications in the SQL Server logs.

    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

  • Very interesting. William, if you go down to 10GB, I'd be curious to know if that helps.

    Also, SQL will give up memory, but painfully, and slowly. It doesn't like to release memory until the OS just about dies.

  • Hi all,

    Thank for all your reply. That's help a lot.

    The SQL 2005 is in Enterprise edition. One thing we know that is server option Max Server Memory is only for buffer pool, other SQL components and processes will use addtional memory when required.

    The problem is that sometimes the OS complain total memory usage is too high (>95%) and I saw SQL Server consum more than 12GB RAM and 8 of them are free space.

    Thanks again.

    William

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