Question about AWE and memory configuration

Question

Post reply

Question about AWE and memory configuration

Steve Croll

SSC-Addicted

Points: 488
More actions
August 1, 2005 at 7:03 pm

#86980

Has anyone configured the 32-bit version of Enterprise edition to more than 8GB of RAM? I did this and after a week I started to see odd memory errors and process login errors. I was wondering if anyone has had similar experience.
steve

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

Ford Fairlane SSCertifiable Points: 7664 More actions · Answer 1

I have it configured on a WIN2K ADV Server. How have you configured your boot.ini file ?

We have set 7GB for SQL server this is configured statically in EM and the rest is for the OS.

The boot.ini switch should be set as so;

/3GB /PAE

Hope this helps...

Ford Fairlane
Rock and Roll Detective

Steve Croll SSC-Addicted Points: 488 More actions · Answer 2

The server is configured with /3GB and /PAE. The issue is that while sql server 2000 enterprise (32-bit) can only handle 8GB, windows 2003 enterprise (32-bit) can address 32GB. The server has 16GB of ram and I configured SQL Server to use 9GB. After a while the server egins to through "Could not allocation contiguous memory" errors.

So what happens when you configure sql server to use more memory than it can address?

Thanks again.

Ford Fairlane SSCertifiable Points: 7664 More actions · Answer 3

I should have read your question correctly the first time.....

Your problem is that SQL Server 2000 ENT ED will only support upto 8GB of RAM under WIN2K Adv Server. Since you have allocated it 9GB, it has having a spack...scientific term for not configured correctly.

You need to run Data Centre to utilize more RAM.

Hope this helps...

Ford Fairlane
Rock and Roll Detective

Steve Croll SSC-Addicted Points: 488 More actions · Answer 4

I guess what I am asking is, can anyone confirm the theory or the behaviour? When you configure sql to take more memory than it is capable of addressing, does it cause memory errors?

vambati SSCrazy Points: 2769 More actions · Answer 5

When u configure more then what sql can take , there should be no errors. I had done the same for SQL 7.0 ENT version, but the system was able to use only 3GB as that's the max for 7.0 with no issues till date, but never no if there is some bug with memory for the new version.