Configuring Windows Memory

On Windows, you must create NTFS partitions and configure memory. Also see Providing NTFS Partitions in Windows.

Insufficient memory for the database server can result in excessive buffer-management activity. When you set the Virtual Memory values in the System application on the Control Panel, ensure that you have enough paging space for the total amount of physical memory.

Maximum Address Space

On Windows, the maximum address space per computer system is:

• 1.7 gigabytes if the boot.ini file is not modified to 3 gigabytes.
• 2.7 gigabytes if the boot.ini file is modified to 3 gigabytes.

You can use the /userva=xxxx switch for more precise tuning of user and kernel virtual memory space. Use this switch with the 3-gigabyte switch in the boot.ini file to tune the user-mode space to a value that is between 2 and 3 gigabytes, with the difference (3,072 less xxxx) given back to the kernel mode. Note that xxxx is a value expressed in megabytes.

The following sample boot.ini file shows how to use the new switch to tune a computer to allocate 2,900 megabytes of user-mode virtual memory and 1,196 megabytes of kernel-mode virtual memory. This increases the available kernel space by 172 megabytes.

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=30
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows Server 2003" 
/fastdetect /3GB /Userva=2900