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snyderkv

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SQL running with 4 GB?

Just wondering what the issues will be when running SQL 2005 Standard and one database for solarwins exclusively which requires 3GB.

The OS is 2003 64bit with 4-6GB.

I heard SQL can eat up all the memory on the system. Any tunning involved?
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geek_vj

>>I heard SQL can eat up all the memory on the system. Any tunning involved?
This is a wrong perception about SQL Server. When OS is running, no application can take all the memory from OS. However, there is every chance that SQL Server can become a bottleneck for system. As such, you need to ensure that you set the maximum server memory accordingly.

Ideally, you need to leave 2 GB exclusively for OS for smooth running (When total memory is 4-6 GB). In addition to OS, if you have any antivirus/apps running on the server, then they may need additional allocation of memory.
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Ok thanks, how do I leave 2GB exclusively for the OS without SQL jacking it?

I'm not sure what this article is saying but the HowTo docs just confused me more.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321363
Contents:
When you start SQL Server, SQL Server memory usage may continue to steadily increase and not decrease, even when activity on the server is low. Additionally, the Task Manager and Performance Monitor may show that the physical memory available on the computer is steadily decreasing until the available memory is between 4 to 10 MB.

This behavior alone does not indicate a memory leak. This behavior is normal and is an intended behavior of the SQL Server buffer pool.

By default, SQL Server dynamically grows and shrinks the size of its buffer pool (cache) depending on the physical memory load reported by the operating system. As long as enough memory is available to prevent paging (between 4 - 10 MB), the SQL Server buffer pool will continue to grow. As other processes on the same computer as SQL Server allocate memory, the SQL Server buffer manager will release memory as needed. SQL Server can free and acquire several megabytes of memory each second, allowing it to quickly adjust to memory allocation changes.
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Thanks men
The vendor probably was talking about the requirement for SQL Server as a whole not their database in particular.
4GB will run fine expecially on 64 bit OS.
To further improve server performance you can:
Optimize on read/Write performance
-set up RAID1 with two disks and have the OS and sql server log files run from here.
-Set up RAID 3 with at least 3 disks and put the SQL Server database files in here and any other important data.

Cool thanks again