/3GB Switch

Hi All

Server 2003 standard edition, MSsql 2005 standard edition

As I understand it server 2003 standard only supports 4gb. Does this mean I can only use up to 4gb as the maximum memory for server 2005?

If that is the case I would like to use the 3GB switch, and leave the other gig for other apps. If I set the 3GB switch in boot.ini do I then also have to enable AWE (which I can't seem to do) or can I forget about AWE altogether?

Many thanks

Martin

Dear Martin.

If your server has 4GB or less of RAM, the "awe enabled" option should always be left to the default value of 0, which means that AWE memory is not being used. The /3GB switch is used to tell SQL Server to take advantage of 3GB out of the base 4GB of RAM that Windows supports natively. If you don't specify this option, then SQL Server will only take advantage of 2GB of the first 4GB of RAM in the server, essentially wasting 1GB of RAM.

If you'll set only /3GB switch and AWE will leave 0 it will be great.

Kind Regards,

Martin Bacik

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Hi Martin,

That answers my question perfectly. Many thanks

Martin (2)

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Hi again,

I set the 3gb switch and rebooted but I can't increase the maximum mermory spinform in server manager. I can't go above 2gb.

Any advice greatly appreciated

Best Regards

Martin

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Here's how to change in through the system stored proc:

Code Snippet

--To display all options

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options',1

RECONFIGURE

--To change the max server memory.

EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory (MB)', 3072

RECONFIGURE

--To switch off the display of all the options

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options',0

RECONFIGURE

Probably want to bounce the SQL service after that.

HTH

Ray