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RAM on SBS2011 as Virtual Machine

Hi,

I converted a physical SBS2011 server as a virtual machine in Hyper-V server. A standalone SBS2011 had 24GB of RAM and I assigned the same amount when creating a virtual machine for it.
Recently we migrated Exchange from SBS to Online and I disabled all Exchange related services in Services.msc.
Do I still need to assign 24GB of RAM for this virtual machine? Sharepoint is probably still running in the background although we don't use it.

Thanks.

Lee W, MVP

If you disabled Exchange, I'd probably drop it down to 8 GB.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

What is left running , if you don't have Exchange and Sharepoint ?

SQL Server and DC ?

sglee

ASKER

I did NOT uninstall Exchange, simply disabled Exchange related services in Services.msc. That made this computer run so faster than those days with Exchange running.
I did not uninstall any other programs that were supposedly installed with initial SBS2011 installation.

Lee W, MVP

SQL shouldn't be running on it. If the premium add-on was purchased that included SQL, it came with another Server license. SQL Express may be on there for WSUS or other services, but they can't use too much RAM under normal conditions.

sglee

ASKER

@Lee
"If the premium add-on was purchased that included SQL," --> I know what you are talking about, No I did not buy premium add-on. It was just standard SBS2011.

"SQL Express may be on there for WSUS" --> I believe that is the case.

So what is the consensus here? 8, 10, 12 GB?
Out of current 24GB, 6.2GB is for Cache, 7.4GB is Available, 1.3GB is free.
How should I interpret these numbers to arrive at optimum RAM amount?

Lee W, MVP

Better question is what is using the RAM right now? Do you need it? Does it need it?