AWE and 3GB switches

I'm configuring a new server with Windows 2003 Enterprise SP1 and SQL Server
2000 Enterprise/SP3a. The server has 8GB of RAM
I have set the /PAE switch in boot.ini and then ran the following:
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
RECONFIGURE
GO
sp_configure 'awe enabled', 1
RECONFIGURE
GO
sp_configure 'max server memory', 6144
RECONFIGURE
GO
I can confirm using the SQL Server:Memory Manager-Total Server Memory
counter that SQL Server is using 6303928 kbs of memory.
Should I be using the 3GB switch? If so why?If you want to use as much of the 8GB SQL server then no.
Using the /3G switch will allow only up to 3GB of RAM to SQL Server.
Likewise, you should leave approx. 1GB of RAM for the OS for every 8GB of
RAM available.
--
MG
"Terri" wrote:
> I'm configuring a new server with Windows 2003 Enterprise SP1 and SQL Server
> 2000 Enterprise/SP3a. The server has 8GB of RAM
> I have set the /PAE switch in boot.ini and then ran the following:
> sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
> RECONFIGURE
> GO
> sp_configure 'awe enabled', 1
> RECONFIGURE
> GO
> sp_configure 'max server memory', 6144
> RECONFIGURE
> GO
> I can confirm using the SQL Server:Memory Manager-Total Server Memory
> counter that SQL Server is using 6303928 kbs of memory.
> Should I be using the 3GB switch? If so why?
>
>
>|||Hurme, thanks for your response. My confusion on this issue unfortunately
persists. Subsequent to my post I found the following article which says I
should use both, /3GB and /PAE.
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/sql_server_performance_audit5.asp
"Hurme" <michael.geles@.thomson.com> wrote in message
news:93A66D75-882B-4501-9607-309CC354FA40@.microsoft.com...
> If you want to use as much of the 8GB SQL server then no.
> Using the /3G switch will allow only up to 3GB of RAM to SQL Server.
> Likewise, you should leave approx. 1GB of RAM for the OS for every 8GB of
> RAM available.
> --
> MG
>
> "Terri" wrote:
> > I'm configuring a new server with Windows 2003 Enterprise SP1 and SQL
Server
> > 2000 Enterprise/SP3a. The server has 8GB of RAM
> >
> > I have set the /PAE switch in boot.ini and then ran the following:
> >
> > sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
> > RECONFIGURE
> > GO
> > sp_configure 'awe enabled', 1
> > RECONFIGURE
> > GO
> > sp_configure 'max server memory', 6144
> > RECONFIGURE
> > GO
> >
> > I can confirm using the SQL Server:Memory Manager-Total Server Memory
> > counter that SQL Server is using 6303928 kbs of memory.
> >
> > Should I be using the 3GB switch? If so why?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >|||Hmmm...the wording is a little ambiguous. It does say in the article, "you
must enter one of the following switches in the boot line of the boot.ini
file..." and Perfmon is showing that more than 6GB on RAM is getting used.
Here is a line that found in another article
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/274750 :
"Use of the /PAE switch in the Boot.ini and the AWE enable option in SQL
Server allows SQL Server 2000 to utilize more than 4 GB memory. Without the
/PAE switch SQL Server can only utilize up to 3 GB of memory."
It's doesn't say that you need both flags to use more that 4GB.
HTH
--
MG
"Terri" wrote:
> Hurme, thanks for your response. My confusion on this issue unfortunately
> persists. Subsequent to my post I found the following article which says I
> should use both, /3GB and /PAE.
> http://www.sql-server-performance.com/sql_server_performance_audit5.asp
> "Hurme" <michael.geles@.thomson.com> wrote in message
> news:93A66D75-882B-4501-9607-309CC354FA40@.microsoft.com...
> > If you want to use as much of the 8GB SQL server then no.
> > Using the /3G switch will allow only up to 3GB of RAM to SQL Server.
> >
> > Likewise, you should leave approx. 1GB of RAM for the OS for every 8GB of
> > RAM available.
> > --
> > MG
> >
> >
> > "Terri" wrote:
> >
> > > I'm configuring a new server with Windows 2003 Enterprise SP1 and SQL
> Server
> > > 2000 Enterprise/SP3a. The server has 8GB of RAM
> > >
> > > I have set the /PAE switch in boot.ini and then ran the following:
> > >
> > > sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
> > > RECONFIGURE
> > > GO
> > > sp_configure 'awe enabled', 1
> > > RECONFIGURE
> > > GO
> > > sp_configure 'max server memory', 6144
> > > RECONFIGURE
> > > GO
> > >
> > > I can confirm using the SQL Server:Memory Manager-Total Server Memory
> > > counter that SQL Server is using 6303928 kbs of memory.
> > >
> > > Should I be using the 3GB switch? If so why?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
>|||Yes, there is some ambiguity. Perhaps others will chime in with additional
thoughts.
"Hurme" <michael.geles@.thomson.com> wrote in message
news:1A5C69C9-0D56-4F33-845C-457C11FAEE62@.microsoft.com...
> Hmmm...the wording is a little ambiguous. It does say in the article,
"you
> must enter one of the following switches in the boot line of the boot.ini
> file..." and Perfmon is showing that more than 6GB on RAM is getting used.
> Here is a line that found in another article
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/274750 :
> "Use of the /PAE switch in the Boot.ini and the AWE enable option in SQL
> Server allows SQL Server 2000 to utilize more than 4 GB memory. Without
the
> /PAE switch SQL Server can only utilize up to 3 GB of memory."
> It's doesn't say that you need both flags to use more that 4GB.
>|||Terry
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283037/en-us
With more than 4GB, then you should use PAE, whether or not Win2K3 enables
this for you or not, use the registry settings to determine if it was
detected, but AWE will require PAE to make use of any address space above
4GB. In fact, the OS and SS will not even recognize memory greater than 4GB
even exists without PAE enabled.
"Terri" <terri@.cybernets.com> wrote in message
news:f0lsmn$g2k$1@.reader2.nmix.net...
> Yes, there is some ambiguity. Perhaps others will chime in with additional
> thoughts.
> "Hurme" <michael.geles@.thomson.com> wrote in message
> news:1A5C69C9-0D56-4F33-845C-457C11FAEE62@.microsoft.com...
>> Hmmm...the wording is a little ambiguous. It does say in the article,
> "you
>> must enter one of the following switches in the boot line of the boot.ini
>> file..." and Perfmon is showing that more than 6GB on RAM is getting
>> used.
>> Here is a line that found in another article
>> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/274750 :
>> "Use of the /PAE switch in the Boot.ini and the AWE enable option in SQL
>> Server allows SQL Server 2000 to utilize more than 4 GB memory. Without
> the
>> /PAE switch SQL Server can only utilize up to 3 GB of memory."
>> It's doesn't say that you need both flags to use more that 4GB.
>