SQL Server 2005 not using available memory

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SQL Server 2005 not using available memory

Jani123

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Points: 57
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March 6, 2009 at 2:32 am

#126852

Hi All,
We are using SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition(64bit) version, which is running on Windows 2003 Enterprise edition(64bit). The total memory of the server is around 32GB. But when I look at the Task Manager > Processes > Memory Usage, the SQL server is only consuming around 145MB. The CPU looks healthy around 10-15%.
But the customer some times complaining about performance of the server. My question is why the sql server is not using the memory capacity which is available and only using 145MB. The minimum server memory is set at 0 and the maximum server memory is set at 2147483647. The Boost SQL server priority also enabled.
Anyone can enlighten me on this.
Best regards,
stm

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spaghettidba SSC Guru Points: 105732 More actions · Answer 1

SQL2005 uses memory dynamically, so it looks like it doesn't need more memory than that.

Personally I prefer never enabling the boost priority option, because it could starve the os.

Performance is a matter of many aspects, of which memory is only one. Try to trace the server with Windows performance monitor. Look at disk queues and CPU usage. Also try to take a look at the index usage and missing indexes DMV.

Regards

Gianluca

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Mohit K. Gupta SSChampion Points: 12130 More actions · Answer 2

And Statistics, heh if the go out of sync you have issues.

Ref: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/elisabeth_redei/archive/2009/03/01/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics-part-i.aspx

In addition don't forget network traffic that can also have affect on the server; too many things to list really. But those are starts I think.

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Jani123 Valued Member Points: 57 More actions · Answer 3

Thanks guys,

I will try to monitor other SQL server and windows statistics.

Regards,

stm

EdVassie SSC Guru Points: 60476 More actions · Answer 4

I prefer never enabling the boost priority option, because it could starve the os

Very true! There are very few situations where enabling this option is helpful, and many where it is harmful to performance. If you think enabling the option might help it is best to get advice from Microsoft Support first.

There is little point in giving SQL Server priority for using the CPU if the disk read/write requests generated by SQL Server and which run by the operating system run slowly because of this. It just means SQL spends a lot more time waiting for data.

Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

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tom.lemmer SSC Journeyman Points: 93 More actions · Answer 5

Can you tell us how long this has been going on? Has the database or web/application servers been rebuilt recently? Have any changes been made to the database around when this was first noticed?

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 6

looking at what your current max memory setting is at, you may want to consider changing it to a more resonable value, like 28672MB (28GB). If your installation of SQL Server should start needing more memory you could potentially starve the OS of memory with the current setting.