Max Memory usage question

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I have sql 2005 v 9.0.4053 64-bit running on Windows Server 2003 R2 64-bit. I have 8 gigs ram, and sql Memory settings are

AWE: Not checked.
Minimum: 128 MB
Max: 2,147,483,647 MB, (I think that's 2 exabyte's if I've got my prefixes correct) which I believe is just the max possible value that field can take.

Anyway, my question--and I hope this is the right forum because this also touches on the windows server itself--is:
Why is the Task Manager's performance tab showing PF Usage and Commit Charge with all 8 gigs used up when nothing is hitting the server yet?

In the Processes tab of TM, Mem Usage shows sqlservr.exe with the most used, and it's only 187,504 KB. Not much else going on in Task Manager, but in the Performance tab PF Usage it shows 7.62 GB used.

From another post I'd asked about paged memory, I'd found that the Kernel Paged and NonPaged sections are mis-named, and really mean "Page-able" and NonPage-able", so I'm wondering if the regular PF Usage stat is similar, and it's seeing that since Sql-server *might* decide to exercise it's setting of Max Mem, that Windows Task Manager somehow knows this and is just reporting a full Commit Charge because it *might* happen?
Thanks for any insight on this,
--Jim

 

[SQLBill]

From my understanding, SQL Server 'grabs' as much memory as it is allowed in case it needs it even if it isn't using it at the time. It's playing it safe and making sure that some other process can't use the memory that it might need.

-SQLBill

The following is part of my signature block and is only intended to be informational.
Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[mrdenny]

SQL may grab the space in the page file, but in won't allocate actual physical memory for itself until it actually needs it.

Denny
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