All free memory gone...

Hi!
I am running MS SQL 2000 Ent sp3 + MS Windows 2000 Datacenter on a
server with 16Gb memory. Total available memory is typically ~200MB
and pretty stable. I use Max Server Memory of 15700MB. Today I could
see a very unusual behavior: the available memory gone from 200MB to
4MB in few seconds. I decreased the Max Server Memory by 200MB:
sp_configure [max server memory (MB)], 15500
reconfigure with override
go
It did not help much: it has 8MB available memory now. The server has
a lot of paging.
What is happening to the server?
Thanks.You should run Windows performance monitor and see who is using the
memory... It is in the processes section...
"Roust_m" <roustam@.hotbox.ru> wrote in message
news:a388fd78.0312010553.2bf2d450@.posting.google.com...
> Hi!
> I am running MS SQL 2000 Ent sp3 + MS Windows 2000 Datacenter on a
> server with 16Gb memory. Total available memory is typically ~200MB
> and pretty stable. I use Max Server Memory of 15700MB. Today I could
> see a very unusual behavior: the available memory gone from 200MB to
> 4MB in few seconds. I decreased the Max Server Memory by 200MB:
> sp_configure [max server memory (MB)], 15500
> reconfigure with override
> go
> It did not help much: it has 8MB available memory now. The server has
> a lot of paging.
> What is happening to the server?
> Thanks.|||AWE memory is not dynamic so changing max server memory won't have any
effect until you restart the service. You really need to leave more room for
the OS, try setting max server memory to 14 GB and monitoring its stability.
Also make sure the /3GB switch is not in boot.ini - just use the /PAE
switch. There is a fair bit of OS overhead in managing AWE memory so you
need to give the OS room to breathe.
--
HTH
Jasper Smith (SQL Server MVP)
I support PASS - the definitive, global
community for SQL Server professionals -
http://www.sqlpass.org
"Roust_m" <roustam@.hotbox.ru> wrote in message
news:a388fd78.0312010553.2bf2d450@.posting.google.com...
Hi!
I am running MS SQL 2000 Ent sp3 + MS Windows 2000 Datacenter on a
server with 16Gb memory. Total available memory is typically ~200MB
and pretty stable. I use Max Server Memory of 15700MB. Today I could
see a very unusual behavior: the available memory gone from 200MB to
4MB in few seconds. I decreased the Max Server Memory by 200MB:
sp_configure [max server memory (MB)], 15500
reconfigure with override
go
It did not help much: it has 8MB available memory now. The server has
a lot of paging.
What is happening to the server?
Thanks.|||Performance monitor does not show processes that eat that much memory.
It does not show memory usage correctly with AWE enabled.
"Wayne Snyder" <wsnyder@.computeredservices.com> wrote in message news:<uZllf7BuDHA.3536@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>...
> You should run Windows performance monitor and see who is using the
> memory... It is in the processes section...
>
> "Roust_m" <roustam@.hotbox.ru> wrote in message
> news:a388fd78.0312010553.2bf2d450@.posting.google.com...
> > Hi!
> >
> > I am running MS SQL 2000 Ent sp3 + MS Windows 2000 Datacenter on a
> > server with 16Gb memory. Total available memory is typically ~200MB
> > and pretty stable. I use Max Server Memory of 15700MB. Today I could
> > see a very unusual behavior: the available memory gone from 200MB to
> > 4MB in few seconds. I decreased the Max Server Memory by 200MB:
> >
> > sp_configure [max server memory (MB)], 15500
> > reconfigure with override
> > go
> >
> > It did not help much: it has 8MB available memory now. The server has
> > a lot of paging.
> >
> > What is happening to the server?
> >
> > Thanks.|||It did work fine for 3 months with 200MB available memory.
This article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;274750
states that you need 1GB for OS only if you have 32+GB RAM:
"When you allocate SQL Server AWE memory on a 32 GB system, Windows
2000 may require at least 1 GB memory to manage AWE. "
As for /3G switch, I also seen an article stating that you need it for
up to 16GB RAM.
Anyway it did work fine...
"Jasper Smith" <jasper_smith9@.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<OFS92FEuDHA.3436@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>...
> AWE memory is not dynamic so changing max server memory won't have any
> effect until you restart the service. You really need to leave more room for
> the OS, try setting max server memory to 14 GB and monitoring its stability.
> Also make sure the /3GB switch is not in boot.ini - just use the /PAE
> switch. There is a fair bit of OS overhead in managing AWE memory so you
> need to give the OS room to breathe.
> --
> HTH
> Jasper Smith (SQL Server MVP)
> I support PASS - the definitive, global
> community for SQL Server professionals -
> http://www.sqlpass.org
> "Roust_m" <roustam@.hotbox.ru> wrote in message
> news:a388fd78.0312010553.2bf2d450@.posting.google.com...
> Hi!
> I am running MS SQL 2000 Ent sp3 + MS Windows 2000 Datacenter on a
> server with 16Gb memory. Total available memory is typically ~200MB
> and pretty stable. I use Max Server Memory of 15700MB. Today I could
> see a very unusual behavior: the available memory gone from 200MB to
> 4MB in few seconds. I decreased the Max Server Memory by 200MB:
> sp_configure [max server memory (MB)], 15500
> reconfigure with override
> go
> It did not help much: it has 8MB available memory now. The server has
> a lot of paging.
> What is happening to the server?
> Thanks.|||Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Does Not Locate Memory Greater Than 16 GB
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;292934
"Jasper Smith" <jasper_smith9@.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<OFS92FEuDHA.3436@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>...
> AWE memory is not dynamic so changing max server memory won't have any
> effect until you restart the service. You really need to leave more room for
> the OS, try setting max server memory to 14 GB and monitoring its stability.
> Also make sure the /3GB switch is not in boot.ini - just use the /PAE
> switch. There is a fair bit of OS overhead in managing AWE memory so you
> need to give the OS room to breathe.
> --
> HTH
> Jasper Smith (SQL Server MVP)
> I support PASS - the definitive, global
> community for SQL Server professionals -
> http://www.sqlpass.org
> "Roust_m" <roustam@.hotbox.ru> wrote in message
> news:a388fd78.0312010553.2bf2d450@.posting.google.com...
> Hi!
> I am running MS SQL 2000 Ent sp3 + MS Windows 2000 Datacenter on a
> server with 16Gb memory. Total available memory is typically ~200MB
> and pretty stable. I use Max Server Memory of 15700MB. Today I could
> see a very unusual behavior: the available memory gone from 200MB to
> 4MB in few seconds. I decreased the Max Server Memory by 200MB:
> sp_configure [max server memory (MB)], 15500
> reconfigure with override
> go
> It did not help much: it has 8MB available memory now. The server has
> a lot of paging.
> What is happening to the server?
> Thanks.