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 4GB Memory Max?

Author  Topic 

chevyhater06
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-25 : 19:19:30
Hello,

I've been reading about the maximum memory allocations that the SQL servers and opeation systems have. I believe that I have maxed my RAM out for SQL but I have read a few items that have confused me a bit. So I will ask my question straight forward.

What is the maximum memory (RAM) that SQL Server Windows NT - 64bit will be able to use on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Operating System?

My SQL server is currently using 4,136,900K of RAM. Inside the SQL Studio I have my database "Maximum Server Memory" set to 5Gb, but I am concerned that is getting limited by something else?

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-25 : 19:35:52
Which version of SQL Server are you using and which edition?

Tara Kizer
SQL Server MVP since 2007
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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chevyhater06
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-25 : 20:58:42
I'm using SQL Server Windows NT 64bit with SQL Server 2012 Management Studio version 11.0.2100.60.
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chevyhater06
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-26 : 00:46:29
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 11.0.2100.60
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 6.1.7601.17514
Microsoft MSXML 2.6 3.0 4.0 6.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.30319.18063
Operating System 6.1.7601
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gbritton
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

2780 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-26 : 03:21:54
confused here. there is no such product as sql server nt 64-bit. there are sql server 2000, 2008 2008r2, 2012, 2014 in various editions -- standard, enterprise,datacenter and others. so, what do you really have?
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chevyhater06
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-26 : 08:58:43
My apologies for the confusion here. I'm relativly new to the database world. It is Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard.
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gbritton
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

2780 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-26 : 11:28:27
from here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993(SQL.105).aspx
you can see that your edition supports up to 64GB memory on a 64 bit edition of windows server
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chevyhater06
Starting Member

5 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-26 : 18:32:10
Okay thanks for the clarification. With that I guess my followup question would be as to why my SQL process (sqlservr.exe) in Windows Task Manager is using the maximum amount of RAM that I have alloted for the program to use inside SQL (Server Properties>Memory>Maximum server memory (in MB)). I origionally had my "Server Maximum Memory" set to 4096MB & noticed that the process was using that same amount of 4GB of RAM. Thinking it needed more memory I increased my server max memory to 5120MB and after a few hours my server is now using 5GB worth of my RAM. Does SQL reserve this RAM to use whenever it needs or is this a tell-tale indication that my server is still needing more RAM alloted to it?
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2015-02-26 : 19:39:40
SQL Server is a memory hog. Using the max setting is normal and is not indicative of a memory issue. Page Life Expectancy is a better indicator. There's also the ring buffers which will tell you if it's under memory pressure.

Tara Kizer
SQL Server MVP since 2007
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/
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huangchen
Starting Member

37 Posts

Posted - 2015-04-02 : 05:57:49
unspammed
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djj55
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

352 Posts

Posted - 2015-04-02 : 09:45:09
Notice that if your Windows server has 4 GB of ram set your SQL max to 3 GB
If your Windows server has 65 GB of ram set your SQL max to 63 GB

Basically you are leaving room for the operating system. As Tara said SQL will take what it can and if it takes all then the operating system does not have any.

djj
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