{"id":497,"date":"2012-04-18T13:56:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T13:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/paul\/post\/Max-server-memory-configuration-survey-results.aspx"},"modified":"2017-04-13T09:50:41","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T16:50:41","slug":"max-server-memory-configuration-survey-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/max-server-memory-configuration-survey-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Max server memory configuration survey results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I kicked off a <\/font><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/survey-memory-configuration\/\" target=\"_blank\"><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">survey about memory configuration<\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">. Actually it was back at the start of January and I&#39;ve been terribly remiss about posting the survey results! <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">I was interested in how the setting of Max Server Memory (which controls the maximum size of the buffer pool) related to the physical memory available on the server. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">Thanks to the people who sent me data from 525 servers worldwide. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">Here is the data, presented in two charts. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">Firstly, when Max Server Memory is actually set: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blogs\/paul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/4\/svrmem1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/> <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">I had a few data points at the 512GB and 768GB sizes, and their Max Server Memory settings were all valid.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">What&#39;s interesting in this graph is the wide variety of Max Server Memory settings for any specific amount of physical server memory.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">Rather than me explaining how you figure out how much physical memory to reserve for the operating system and other SQL Server memory uses, Jonathan just posted an explanation and loose formula over on his blog &#8211; so I&#39;ll <\/font><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/jonathan\/post\/how-much-memory-does-my-sql-server-actually-need.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">point you there<\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">There were a disturbingly large number of SQL Servers that did *not* have Max Server Memory set at all:<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blogs\/paul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/4\/svrmem2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">These systems may suffer performance problems when the operating system has to pressure the SQL Server buffer pool to give back some memory &#8211; it&#39;s always better to set a Max Server Memory value &#8211; again, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/jonathan\/post\/how-much-memory-does-my-sql-server-actually-need.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan&#39;s post<\/a>.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">The large spike at 8GB in the graph above is because one person sent me a few hundred sets of results for 8GB servers without Max Server Memory set.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font size=\"2\">Here&#39;s the same set of results without the 8GB spike:<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blogs\/paul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/4\/svrmem3.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">Quick summary: make sure you have an appropriate Max Server Memory setting for your servers to avoid performance problems.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I kicked off a survey about memory configuration. Actually it was back at the start of January and I&#39;ve been terribly remiss about posting the survey results! I was interested in how the setting of Max Server Memory (which controls the maximum size of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,66,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memory","category-performance-tuning","category-surveys"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Max server memory configuration survey results - Paul S. 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I was interested in how the setting of Max Server Memory (which controls the maximum size of the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/max-server-memory-configuration-survey-results\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paul S. 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