Question

Windows 2003 Ram limit

Asked by: Deatherage

I have windows server stantard 2003.  My new dell power edge 1900 has 6 gigs of memory in it however I was told server 2003 can only recognize 4 gigs of memory.  Is there a way to fix this or is there a teweak or workaround so I do not have to go to enterprise.

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Asked On
2007-09-12 at 08:58:48ID22823745
Tags

2003

,

limit

,

windows

,

memory

,

ram

Topics

Computer Memory (RAM)

,

Memory Boosters

,

Windows 2003 Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: garycasePosted on 2007-09-12 at 09:16:24ID: 19877637

There's no workaround ... but the 4GB limit is only for the 32-bit version of Server 2003 Standard edition.   The 64-bit version of Server 2003 Standard edition supports up to 16GB of memory ... so if you can use it you won't have to upgrade to the enterprise version.

The memory limits for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows are shown here:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

 

by: DeatheragePosted on 2007-09-12 at 09:50:31ID: 19877934

thank you

 

by: garycasePosted on 2007-09-12 at 10:32:59ID: 19878344

You're most welcome.

 

by: RentAGeekInMAPosted on 2009-02-04 at 11:59:40ID: 23552727

CORRECTION:  The Dell PowerEdge 1600 has a Xeon processor, which supports PAE, or Physical Address Extension.

(Most any processor Pentium PRO or higher, including some AMD processors, support this).

With PAE enabled, the server can make use of up to 32GB of memory (depending on the motherboard limits; this is the Windows Server limit).

There are some limitations; a single process is still limited to less than 4GB, for example.  You can find out more here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_server_2003

also, do a search for PAE within MSDN for more on how to turn it on (in the boot.ini file using flag /PAE).

 

by: garycasePosted on 2009-02-04 at 13:14:43ID: 23553601

Wrong.   /PAE does provide a workaround for support above the 4GB limit with 32-bit OS's that support it, providing the CPU and BIOS have the appropriate support => but Server 2003 Standard does not support exceeding 4GB.   Other versions of Server 2003 do indeed support greater than 4GB (and indeed PAE is the mechanism they use to do this) ... but NOT the Standard edition.

... the link I provided above shows the memory addressing limits for all of the Server 2003 editions (as well as other Windows versions).   Note that for several editions the limit is different depending on whether or not you also enable 4GB tuning (the /3GB switch).

 

by: RentAGeekInMAPosted on 2009-02-04 at 15:16:50ID: 23554865

<egg on face>

Even though I did pull up the Microsoft page before posting,  and after discussion with someone who I thought knew more than I did, mea culpa, I did not RTM (or RTFAQ) carefully enough.

The 1st answer, and the prior poster are correct.  WINDOWS SERVER STANDARD 2003 cannot go above 4Gb.

</egg on face>

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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