Why SQL Server enable Large Pages?

  • From SQL Server error log, i found following information:

    [highlight=#ffff11]2009-06-04 12:21:08.16 Server Large Page Extensions enabled.

    2009-06-04 12:21:08.16 Server Large Page Granularity: 2097152

    2009-06-04 12:21:08.21 Server Large Page Allocated: 32MB [/highlight]

    It seems my SQL Server enabels large pages. As my database is OLTP and enable large pages may hurt performance, so i want to turn it off.

    My SQL Server is 2005 Enterprise(64 bit) and has 12GB RAM. Service account is local system, trace flag 834 is turned off.

    Is there a way to make SQL Server not enable large pages? Currently i don't want to change my service account.

    Thanks in advance?

  • It's not using large pages, don't worry about that. Without traceflag 834 SQL won't use large pages, it enables the extensions, but that's all.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2009/06/05/sql-server-and-large-pages-explained.aspx <- explained there why you see that entry in the error log.

    When SQL's actually using large pages, your error log entry looks like:

    2009-06-04 14:20:31.13 Server Large Page Extensions enabled.

    2009-06-04 14:20:31.13 Server Large Page Granularity: 2097152

    2009-06-04 14:20:31.14 Server Large Page Allocated: 32MB

    2009-06-04 14:20:40.03 Server Using large pages for buffer pool.

    2009-06-04 14:27:56.98 Server 2048 MB of large page memory allocated.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Thanks Gail. When i query memory utilization by SQL Server, i found AWE allocated about 2GB, working set only taken 88MB ,is it normal?

    Query AWE allocated memory:

    select

    sum(awe_allocated_kb) / 1024 as [AWE allocated, Mb]

    from

    sys.dm_os_memory_clerks

  • How are you seeing the working set? Let me guess, task manager?

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • yes, from task manager.

  • Never use task manager to check SQL's memory as it will display incorrect values if you have locked pages enabled (Task manager limitation)

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • got it. thanks so much.

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