Re: 2003 Enterprise edition and SQL
See section 2 at
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/WindowsGeneralWeb/RAMVirtualMemoryPageFileEtc.htm.
If the current hardware supports more than 4 GB RAM, it may support 64 bit
Windows already - check the hardware specifications. To support more than 4
GB of RAM the hardware has to support more than 32 bit physical addressing.
64 bit processors and 64 bit capable chipsets have been around for quite a
long time. All the servers we purchased about 4 years ago support 64 bit
Windows, although for various reasons, we are only running 32 bit Windows on
most of them.
If the /PAE option is specified in the boot.ini, 32 bit Windows Server 2003
Enterprise can see and use up to 32 GB of installed RAM (assuming the
hardware supports it). However, any single 32 bit process has a maximum of
2 GB, or 3 GB if the /3GB switch is effective, of private (virtual) memory
available at a any one time in any version of 32 bit Window. With 64 bit
Windows, a 32 bit application (process) can have up to 4 GB of private
virtual memory (see table on page 3 of the document available at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/x64benefits.mspx).
The page at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa175251.aspx implies
that SQL Server 2000 as the IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE set and thus may
be able use all 4 GB of the private virtual address space available with 64
bit Windows.
Using the AWE API a 32 bit process (application) can use whatever RAM is
left over for what is essentially in-RAM paging. This will be significantly
faster than disk paging but does not increase the size of the virtual memory
address space and thus the amount of memory that can be directly addressed
at any point in time.
Note that to be useful, the application has to be built to make use of the
/3GB switch and AWE - applications won't necessarily use it just because its
available.
Since the /3GB boot.ini switch and the AWE API were designed specifically
for major applications, like Exchange and SQL Server, it is possible that
SQL Server 2000 can use them, but I don't know that for sure. According to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa175251.aspx SQL Server 2000 can be
configured to use AWE.
A 64 bit operating system (e.g. Windows Server R2 64 bit) and a 64 bit
application (e.g. SQL Server 2005 or 2008 64 bit) would most likely deliver
more capacity than the 32 bit versions on the same hardware when there is >
4 GB of RAM, .
The pages at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/64bit/demo.mspx and
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/64bit/datasheet.mspx only mentions
Intel Itanium processors with 64 bit SQL Server 2000 64 bit, so it probably
won't work on x64 processors.
Since, as Marhieu Chateau points out, SQL Server 2000 is essentially
end-of-life, so an upgrade to new version would probably be beneficial
anyway.
--
Bruce Sanderson
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.
"Brian" <Brian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CF6F3106-D000-4A9F-B9C0-5C73925AE266@microsoft.com...
> So let me get this straight.
> My current setup is Windows 2003 Enterprise (32bit) running SQL2000
> Enterprise. The server currently has 8 gigs of RAM. So the OS will only
> see
> 4gig but SQL will use the other 4 to cache the database? OR do I need to
> upgrade the hardware?
>
> Thanks
>
>
> "Mathieu CHATEAU" wrote:
>
>> In addition to Anthony answer,
>> Windows 2003 32 bit standard edition can see 4GB
>> Windows 2003 64 bit standard edition can see 16GB
>> Windows 2003 64 bit R2 standard edition can see 32GB
>>
>> Memory Limits for Windows Releases
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_server_2003
>>
>> In 32 bit anyway, after 4GB, SQL only use it as cache (reduced useness
>> the
>> first four 4GB). And it needs AWE of course.
>>
>> By the way, the mainstream support for SQL 2000 is ended:
>> http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseser...-server-2005-sp1-and-sql-server-2000-sp4.aspx
>>
>> --
>> Cordialement,
>> Mathieu CHATEAU
>> English blog: http://lordoftheping.blogspot.com
>> French blog: http://www.lotp.fr
>>
>> "Brian" <Brian@discussions.microsoft.com> a écrit dans le message de
>> news:22EE0292-AA9B-4461-B015-23D940BA19CB@microsoft.com...
>> >
>> > Hello all;
>> > Just wondering if someone could answer a very basic question? If you
>> > have
>> > a
>> > server that has 8gigs of RAM or more does SQL2000 Enterprise see more
>> > then
>> > 4
>> > gig of RAM? I know that you have to install Server 2003 Enterprise
>> > edition
>> > but do you need to install 64bit OS or can you use 32bit OS with
>> > SQL2000
>> > Enterprise?
>> >
>>
>>