Insufficient memory available and Error: 17803, Severity: 20, State: 12

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Insufficient memory available and Error: 17803, Severity: 20, State: 12

Doug Walden-380201

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Points: 43
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November 20, 2006 at 12:11 pm

#76616

We have been getting these errors in our SQL Server Logs:Insufficient memory available and Error: 17803, Severity: 20, State: 12.
We are Running a Win 2003 box with 6gig physical memory.
We have the boot.ini file set with both the /3GB and the /PAE settings.
We are running SQL 2000 Ent. SP4(SQL Server 8.00.2039 - SP4 (Enterprise Edition)
) with fixed memory set at 3138 and 3 of the 4 processors are set for SQL. AWE is set to ON.
SQL 2000 is the only thing running on the box. There are two main databases: one is 10 gig and the other is just over 1 gig. The 10 gig database has a 30,000,000 row table in it that can not get reindexed. When the database reindex maintenance plan runs every week it fails on this table and indicates the above errors. Not sure if this is a symptom or not, but when I restart the server one of the entries that happens everytime is "Warning: unable to allocate 'min server memory' of 3138MB".
I have defragged the disks (file fragmentation was 85% now 50%). All articles I ahve read indicate that SQL SP4 fixes this issue. Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks, Doug

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John Rowan SSC Guru Points: 56440 More actions · Answer 1

I see a couple of things here. First, did you apply the AWE hot fix for SP4? If not, there is a bug with AWE in SP4 that Microsoft has created a hot fix for. Get it and apply it. Second, if you have 6GB of memory in the server, why are you limiting it to 3GB? You should up the Max Server Memory (MB) setting to 5GB. If you are planning on leaving it at 3GB, turn AWE off as you do not need it! AWE allows SQL Server to use memory above 4GB. If you configure SQL Server to take up a maximum of 3GB, you are not taking advantage of AWE anyway.

John Rowan

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Doug Walden-380201 SSC Rookie Points: 43 More actions · Answer 2

John,

I had wondered about the memory setting and have upped the memory to 5153. The AWE setting has just recently been turned on to try and get rid of the memory error. I have not applied the hot fix for the AWE yet. I will look into that and let you know how it goes.

Thanks, Doug

John Rowan SSC Guru Points: 56440 More actions · Answer 3

Doug,

Here is the KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899761

John Rowan

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Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url] - by Jeff Moden

Doug Walden-380201 SSC Rookie Points: 43 More actions · Answer 4

John,

I was able to apply the hot fix you referenced. I still get the message in teh SQL logs that says: Warning: unable to allocate 'min server memory' of 5153MB.

I will not know about the out of memory error message until next week when the job runs that uses a lot of memory.

If you have any insight as to why SQL server can not allocate the min server memory I would apprciate it.

Thanks for your help.

Doug