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AWE setting on 64 bit version

Author

Topic

AgaK
Yak Posting Veteran

86 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-05 : 15:54:58

Hi,

Does ‘Use AWE to allocate memory’ check box needs to be checked on a 64 bit SQL Server 2005 installation to use more RAM or it’s done automatically because it’s 64 bit?

Thank you kindly

AK

spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master

11752 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-05 : 17:12:31

no. yes.

you don't need to enable AWE on 64 bit systems.

___________________________________________________________________________
Causing trouble since 1980
Blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp
Speed up SSMS development: www.ssmstoolspack.com <- version 1.7 out!

russell
Pyro-ma-ni-yak

5072 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-05 : 20:53:57

With apologies to Spitit1, this is not quite correct. This question seems to come up a lot. Please refer to Slava Oks's blog entry here: http://blogs.msdn.com/slavao/archive/2005/04/29/413425.aspx

krishnarajeesh
Yak Posting Veteran

67 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-06 : 12:37:03

Make sure to use lock pages in memory option, even for 64 bit.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918483

Thanks,
Krishna
www.SQLServer.in

spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master

11752 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-06 : 13:23:33

@russell:
thanx for the link. interesting read. i do however think that this would be of importance only for seriously high perf systems.
for someone who has to ask a question like: "do i need to... " i think awe is overkill.

___________________________________________________________________________
Causing trouble since 1980
Blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp
Speed up SSMS development: www.ssmstoolspack.com <- version 1.7 out!

russell
Pyro-ma-ni-yak

5072 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-06 : 17:57:09

Agreed Spirit1. I have enabled it on my high performance systems and left it alone on others.

AgaK
Yak Posting Veteran

86 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-06 : 19:24:49

thank you for all the replies. I will read the suggested links. AK

AgaK
Yak Posting Veteran

86 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-06 : 19:57:00

The question should have been:

SQL Server 2005 (64 bit) that is running on a server with 26 GB of RAM.
Do I need to check the AWE box to allow SQL Server use more than 4GB of RAM?

Thank you

AK

russell
Pyro-ma-ni-yak

5072 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-06 : 21:28:06

The short answer, as Spirit said is "no, you don't need to"

spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master

11752 Posts

Posted - 2009-11-11 : 14:57:10

just for completeness sake:

setting awe ti on on 64 bit sql server does nothing.
The AWE APIs for 32bit and 64bit SQL Server systems are used for different purposes.
In 32bit it is really to extend memory access beyond 4Gb or to enable the AWE feature.
For 64bit systems, it is to possibly gain performance and to “lock pages” for the buffer pool.

source:
http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/09/11/fun-with-locked-pages-awe-task-manager-and-the-working-set.aspx

___________________________________________________________________________
Causing trouble since 1980
Blog: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp
Speed up SSMS development: www.ssmstoolspack.com <- version 1.7 out!

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