minimum memory advisement?

platypus · 15 Dec 2009 at 09:43

Just a quick question:

Windows Server 2003 Standard, SQL Server 2000, a 6GB Database. What would most people recommend the minimum memory? I know basically more is better, but budgets are usually an issue.

bigredshark · 15 Dec 2009 at 11:11

Depends how much it's being used, I wouldn't think you'd need more than 4GB in most circumstances, 2GB might do. Really depends on how many queries you're seeing though...

Saundie · 15 Dec 2009 at 11:24

I am assuming that this is SQL 2000 Standard and not Enterprise, and so it cannot use any more than 2GB of RAM? In which case, 4GB would likely be fine.

platypus · 15 Dec 2009 at 13:17

Indeed it's standard, which means ~1.8GB of the database can be loaded into ram plus database overheads iirc? Upgrading SQL server is never likely to be a possibility.

daz · 15 Dec 2009 at 13:49

I'd seriously consider converting to a database system that is 64-bit so that you can have 8GB of RAM+ (RAM is so cheap these days) and have the whole database effectively cached in RAM.

RAM is so much cheaper than disk I/O, so it's probably worth thinking about converting the database sooner rather than later because it's only going to cause more problems in the future.

platypus · 15 Dec 2009 at 14:47

That simply isn't an option sadly, given the need for a 64 bit o/s, a new sql database (2000 doesn't support over 2gbs ram)

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