Is 6GB of RAM enough for the server at work? (about 20 people!)

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When I log on remotely at work, the amount of RAM being used is consistently at about 90%. It hardly ever drops below that.

So one day I wondered what would happen if I logged on and loaded a few large CAD drawings. Guess what happened?

Yep... everyone started getting freezes and blue screens etc - oops! :p

So they had to remotely restart the sever and I ended up giving everyone a 10 minute break by accident (sort of). Naturally I was pretty nervous because I knew that they would know it was me who loaded up all these CAD files.

Then I thought, is 6GB really enough for a server that is expected to have 15 to 20 users simultaneously??

Maybe I was in the right to highlight the issue :D
 
Can't go wrong with more RAM.

But for a server there are many other factors that can/will impact performance - processor, disks & speed, network speed, OS etc...
 
Duke said:
What is using up the memory? Exchange? Databases?
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Dunno! People at work are generally using officy programs, nothing too hardcore except the odd cad file.

I've got no involvement with the computers at work, and have no idea about company networking/servers etc... it just seemed odd to me that a company sever with that many people on all at once has the same amount of RAM as my PC at home!

Also... the sever is pretty much brand spanking new! Has it been under-specd to save a little dosh I wonder?
 
6GB is fine for just a file server but if you're using it for exchange\email or SQL databases was well then more is better.

I've got a file server that serves out over 40TB of seismic files (can easily be 100GB+ per file) to around 60 people, it's only got 4GB of RAM. Runs fine because the only thing is does is file serving and it has 4Gbit fibre on the backend and 4x1Gbit teamed networking.

Did you load up these CAD files on the actual server or simply open them up from your desktop? Remember just because the files are on the server hard disk it's not going to have them open in an application so it's got no need to use tons of ram like a desktop.
 
Vtec9k said:
6GB is fine for just a file server but if you're using it for exchange\email or SQL databases was well then more is better.

I've got a file server that serves out over 40TB of seismic files (can easily be 100GB+ per file) to around 60 people, it's only got 4GB of RAM. Runs fine because the only thing is does is file serving and it has 4Gbit fibre on the backend and 4x1Gbit teamed networking.

Did you load up these CAD files on the actual server or simply open them up from your desktop? Remember just because the files are on the server hard disk it's not going to have them open in an application so it's got no need to use tons of ram like a desktop.
Click to expand...

Yeh it's being used for exchange and everything... I just worked that one out.

I loaded the CAD files from within terminal services. I use a PC rather than just a terminal like most other people, but I can log on to Terminal Services too.
 
Yea ok that'd kill it :)

Exchange is a real memory hog and will use all it can find. But it does release some RAM to other apps if they need to use it so they look like they are using more RAM than they actually do.

For a small office it'll be fine but loading up lots of files on the actual server it will certainly cause problems!
 
Blue screens as a result of the server running out of ram doesn't sound right. Everything grinding to a halt is certainly possible, so freezing is on the cards, but nothing should have blue screened.

Does the server has at least a few gb of swap / virtual memory available? If someone has (probably with good intentions) set it to zero then this should be changed.
 
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