{"id":727,"date":"2010-04-05T11:10:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T11:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/paul\/post\/A-SQL-Server-DBA-myth-a-day-(530)-AWE-must-be-enabled-on-64-bit-servers.aspx"},"modified":"2017-04-13T12:47:41","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T19:47:41","slug":"a-sql-server-dba-myth-a-day-530-awe-must-be-enabled-on-64-bit-servers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/a-sql-server-dba-myth-a-day-530-awe-must-be-enabled-on-64-bit-servers\/","title":{"rendered":"A SQL Server DBA myth a day: (5\/30) AWE must be enabled on 64-bit servers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Look in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/category\/misconceptions\/\">Misconceptions<\/a> blog category for the rest of the month&#8217;s posts and check out the 60-page PDF with all the myths and misconceptions blog posts collected together when you join our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/join-the-sqlskills-insider-community\/\" target=\"_blank\">Insider list<\/a>, plus my online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pluralsight.com\/courses\/sqlserver-myths\" target=\"_blank\">Myths and Misconceptions training course<\/a> on Pluralsight.)<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\"><font size=\"2\"><strong>Myth #5:<\/strong> <em>AWE must be enabled on 64-bit servers<\/em><\/font><\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font size=\"2\"><strong><em><u>FALSE<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">(This one was suggested by fellow-MVP Jonathan Kehayias (<\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/sqlblog.com\/blogs\/jonathan_kehayias\/\"><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">blog<\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">|<\/font><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sqlsarg\"><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">twitter<\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">))<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">There&#39;s a *huge* amount of confusion about AWE settings, locked pages, and what works\/doesn&#39;t work, and what&#39;s required\/not required on 32-bit and 64-bit servers, and in which editions.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">In a nutshell:<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">On 64-bit systems (2005+):<\/font>\n\t<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">AWE is not required (and in fact enabling it does nothing)<\/font>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">Turning on the &quot;Locked Pages in Memory&quot; privilege prevents the buffer pool memory (and anything that uses single-page-at-a-time memory allocations) from being paged out<\/font>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">When the &quot;Locked Pages in Memory&quot; privilege is set, SQL Server uses the Windows AWE API to do memory allocations as it&#39;s a little bit faster<\/font>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">&quot;Locked Pages in Memory&quot; is supported by Standard and Enterprise editions (see <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/b\/psssql\/archive\/2009\/05\/19\/an-update-for-standard-sku-support-for-locked-pages.aspx\"><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">this blog post<\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\"> for how to enable it in Standard edition)<\/font>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">On 32-bit systems (2005+):<\/font>\n\t<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">AWE is required to make use of extended virtual address space <\/font>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">The &quot;Locked Pages in Memory&quot; privilege must be enabled before AWE can be enabled<\/font>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n\t\t<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">AWE is supported by Standard and Enterprise editions<\/font>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">No surprise that it&#39;s a bit confusing!<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">My good friend Bob Ward from CSS wrote a very detailed FAQ blog post that explains all of this &#8211; see <\/font><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/b\/psssql\/archive\/2009\/09\/11\/fun-with-locked-pages-awe-task-manager-and-the-working-set.aspx\">Fun with Locked Pages, AWE, Task Manager, and the Working Set&hellip;<\/a><\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font size=\"2\">Tune in tomorrow to see what myth is next up for debunking!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Look in the Misconceptions blog category for the rest of the month&#8217;s posts and check out the 60-page PDF with all the myths and misconceptions blog posts collected together when you join our Insider list, plus my online Myths and Misconceptions training course on Pluralsight.) Myth #5: AWE must be enabled on 64-bit servers FALSE [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memory","category-misconceptions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A SQL Server DBA myth a day: (5\/30) AWE must be enabled on 64-bit servers - Paul S. 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