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dhw
Constraint Violating Yak Guru
332 Posts |
 Posted - 2003-11-19 : 18:44:53
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| hello...We have a customer that has reported a problem with our application that uses sql 2000 server as the database server. The RAM usage keeps going up and up, and doesn't go down even after they shut down our application. It gets to a point where their SQL server crashes.Are there any specific server settings to allocate memory and to make sure or force the RAM to become available again?thanks -dw |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 18:48:10
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| SQL Server is designed to use a lot of memory. SQL Server will NOT release it unless it is done with it AND another process has requested it. To unallocate it, you can reboot the box or restart the MSSQLSERVER service. But that would not be recommended since you don't need to unallocate the memory.How do you now that it crashes because it is out of memory? I suspect that the answer is you don't. Performance Monitor should be run in order to determine if SQL Server needs more memory.Tara |
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dhw
Constraint Violating Yak Guru
332 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 18:52:34
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| Tara....thanks for the information. I wasn't aware how sql server uses memory...this is helpful to know.As far as how we know that it crashes because it's out of memory...you're right...we don't know. That was what the customer reported. I'll see if their network admin/dba can run performance monitor or the profile to check what is going on.thanks again - dw |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 18:56:51
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| Profiler will not give you the information that you need. Performance Monitor will. For specific counters to track, check out sql-server-performance.com.Tara |
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MichaelP
Jedi Yak
2489 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 19:02:22
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| When you say "their SQL Server Crashes" what exactly does that mean?You get an error from SQL Server?You get a Bluee Screen from Windows?What is in the event log when this happens?Michael<Yoda>Use the Search page you must. Find the answer you will.</Yoda> |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 19:04:36
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| I would bet that the server didn't crash. Crashes are very rare these days if you are running the new versions. I would suspect that your customer is reporting a crash but in fact the problem is just that SQL Server is very busy causing queries to perform slow. Performance Monitor would be able to tell you if there was a hardware bottleneck.Tara |
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MichaelP
Jedi Yak
2489 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 19:49:57
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| I totally agree with Tara on this one. The "crash" is probably some error message on the client application. The only way that the SQL server might have crashed is if there's a bad stick on RAM in the system, and when the system uses a lot of RAM it hits this bad stick and causes a BSOD or something.Michael(Almost to 1000!! woohoo!)<Yoda>Use the Search page you must. Find the answer you will.</Yoda> |
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dhw
Constraint Violating Yak Guru
332 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-20 : 10:10:20
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| Thanks for all of the great help and info. I am trying to find out from the customer what the actual error or crash was. The idea of a bad stick of RAM might be worth investigating too. - dw |
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Server crashes and RAM usage