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SQL Server 2000 DE taking 85% of system memory?

Is that normal? From what'd I've read (and I'm no DBA) it's normal for the sql process to take a lot of system memory as long as other processes aren't asking for it. But does taking enough memory to have my server report 85% memory usage seem normal? The server has 2GB ram and is only running the solarwinds product and sql.

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Network_Guru

My server has 3Gb of ram & SQL process always takes 1.7Gb of ram.
You can also control the max amount of ram SQL uses.

-=Cheers=-
NG

jonchill

Our box has 2Gig and I have restricted SQL to use a maximum of 1.4gig.

Jon

IT Infrastructure Manager
Pilgrim Hospital
UK

DonYonce

When SQL Server is installed, by default it is configured to use almost all system memory.

Microsoft assumes that since you have installed SQL Server, you want the best performance out of it, and the best way to improve SQL Server performance is to give it a LOT of memory. In most cases this is an excellent assumption.

You can however set the "maximum about of system memory to use". From SQL Server Enterprise Manager, right click on your server and select properties. The memory settings can be adjusted from the "Memory" tab.

FormerMember

Where can I change that if I'm using the Desktop Edition of SQL that came with SolarWinds? If I look at the server details in the SolarWinds Database Manager I can see the max server memory size but cannot change it.

DonYonce

If you do not have SQL Enterprise Manager, you can use SolarWinds Database Manager to set the maximum memory used by SQL Server.

From within Database Manager, right-click on any table name and select "Query table ...".

Enter in the following SQL command and click on "Refresh"

sp_configure 'max server memory'

It will spit out something similar to the following

name                    minimum maximum         config_value
max server memory (MB)	4	2147483647	200

The config_value column shows current maximum memory allocated to SQL Server in megabytes. NOT the 'maximum' column !

To change this setting enter the same SQL command, but add the maximum memory in Megabytes to the end.

The following example sets the maxmimum amount of memory SQL Server will use to 400 MB.

sp_configure 'max server memory', 400

As always, the more memory you give SQL Server, the better it performs.

mjhamilton

good post.. limited my MSDE SQL server to 512M and have seen no loss of performance... this should give m Windows VMWare server longer legs between reboots.....

Martin J. Hamilton... lost in a sea of snmp...

FormerMember

quote:Originally posted by mjhamilton

good post.. limited my MSDE SQL server to 512M and have seen no loss of performance... this should give m Windows VMWare server longer legs between reboots.....

Martin J. Hamilton... lost in a sea of snmp...

Great post, thanks!