Server Configuration

[nubianwarrior]

We have recently acquired a Dell 2950 Quad Core machine with 32 GB of RAM. We will be installing windows server 2003 enterprise and sql server 2005 Enterprise.

My question is how much of the RAM should you give to the o/s and how much would you give to the sql server.

The database supports a web application that is highly sql intensive with reads and writes.

Also I know that there are a couple of things that you need to do for the server and o/s to be able to read that much memory. I know one is the boot.ini file (/3GB switch and the /pae switch). Is there anything you have to do to the sql server as well?

Thanks for any help I might receive.

 

[MDXer]

It depends on what all else the server will be running. Just the SQL Server DB engine?

 

[nubianwarrior]

The server will be used for reporting services and sql server only.

 

[MDXer]

I would look at probably setting SQL memory to 24 GB. leaving the rest for the OS and SSRS. If you ran SSIS or SSAS then the answer would be different.