AWE Memory use does not appear in any of the standard memory use displays. If you want to see the use of AWE memory, you need to use perfmon and look at the AWE memory buffers.

So, if you have configured your memory correctly using AWE memory, you should see in task manager SQL using 60-80mb of memory and never taking anymore. That is normal.

To see if things are working correctly, look at the AWE memory buffers an make sure they are being used. In addition to this, if SQL cannot allocate the minimum memory allocated, you get a message in the SQL logs when the server starts, if you have not received a message about the server not being able to allocate the minimum memory, you are probably all set.

You should also do some testing. SQL 2005 memory allocation management is much better than it was in SQL 2000 and leaving it dynamic can sometimes give you better performance. I found that was the case with two of the last three SQL 2005 environments I set up recently.

Finally, make sure you understand the differences in the way SQL uses regular memory (the first 2-3gb it can take) and the way it uses AWE memory. AWE memory has a very limited subset of uses and you may find that there are many things you want SQL to cache that it cannot use AWE memory for. It is important to understand the differences so your expectations are in-line with reality.