November 8, 2006 at 9:14 pm
I have a reporting server that I restore logs to during off hours. Ever since I enabled AWE and set the max server for sql on the box to 5 GBs on a 6 GB box, a 150 mb log takes 10 minutes to restore. Any ideas?
November 9, 2006 at 1:22 am
Do you have the /3GB and /PAE switches in your boot.ini file? Is your reporting server a dedicated SQL Server, or does it also do anything else?
John
November 9, 2006 at 8:08 am
Its a 2003 machine so this is what I have in the boot.ini /noexecute=optout /fastdetect /PAE
Just for reporting. No one was on the system at the time of the restore.
November 9, 2006 at 8:14 am
OK - if you want the operating system only to use 1GB of RAM (instead of the default of 2GB), which I presume you do since you've set SQL Server to use 5GB, then you need to add the /3GB switch to your boot.ini file.
John
November 9, 2006 at 9:03 am
sorry to disagree but you don't need the 3gb switch , I'm happily using 11gb of ram on a 12gb server without using the 3gb switch. 3gb switch is generally used in systems with 4 gb of ram, usually only use awe above 4gb.
awe only increases the data cache, 3gb switch increases various buffers and pools too and can give problems with lower memory. Covered in Ken Henderson's Guru internals guide. ( well worth a read )
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/
November 9, 2006 at 9:08 am
Thanks for the reply Colin. With that being said, do you have any ideas as to why the slow down occured after I just enable an additional 3 GBs of memory to SQL2000?
November 10, 2006 at 2:20 am
I've not typically seen any problems using awe, used it on boxes with up to 32gb of ram. Have had a few problems with the 3gb switch. I'd suggest you run a perfmon log, or monitor whilst you restore to make sure your system has enough memory available.
The obvious question is :- if you disable the extra 3gb does the job speed up?
Things to be careful of are out of process ( sql ) apps/programs - sysmaint.exe, dts etc. etc. which take extra memory.
When you set the awe memory did you fix the max and min memory to be the same value, if you're running awe with dynamic memory management then I'd more likely expect problems - I know there's conflicting advice , even from ms, about awe but I've always set min and max memory to be the same value with awe. Assuming your box is a dedicated sql server.
I normally monitor available memory after I've set awe, lets say I've given sql server 7Gb out of 8Gb, and if over a period of time I see say 750mb free memory then I will tend to creep up the awe allocated. I've seen lots of postings about keeping 1gb free for the o/s just in case it needs it - but free memory is actually unused memory and on top end servers is very expensive memory!! It's akin to buying a 5 seater car but always keeping 2 seats free!!
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/
November 10, 2006 at 11:56 am
After you enabled AWE, did you restart the box?
November 10, 2006 at 12:52 pm
I'm with Colin. Roll back the change and confirm that it speeds up.
Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply