The article is right in time for me. I’ve just added new ndf files to TempDb. Unfortunately, there is a small issue that surprised me. As you can see in attached Word file, that result of run of EXEC sp_helpfile and SELECT * FROM sys.master_files is different for initial size and current file size of TempDb.

Can anybody explain what does it mean and if there is a way to resolve it without service restart?

It is working and there is no problem with that but if I run DBCC SHRINKDB, the initial size for Tempdb.mdf will jump to 6Gb and files will not be same size that may lead to disproportional load. I am not afraid to make each file 6Gb but the server doesn’t need 6*8=48Gb Tempdb.

Initially TempDb had size of 6Gb and I had no problem adding ndf files with initial size of 500Mb. However, every attempt to reduce initial size of TempDB.mdf resulted in error message: “MODIFY FILE failed. Specified size is less than current size."

My last step was: SSMS --> TempDB --> Properties --> Files --> Initial size modified to 500; Click OK; Restart Service. After that TempDB is 4Gb (8*0.5).