The following article explains how to adjust the memory used by Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008/2012 on your VDS. This article pertains to both Express and Workgroup edition. When MSSQL is installed, the maximum server memory value is set by default to approximately 2,000 GB. This is done to allow MSSQL to use all available memory, regardless of the amount of memory on the server. If your VDS is only running MSSQL, this value is fine. If you are running additional applications on your server, you will want to adjust this value so that MSSQL shares memory with other applications on the server.
To adjust the memory, please follow these steps:
1) Log into Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio either directly on your VDS or from your local machine.
2) Right click the SQL server name and select Properties.
3) Select the Memory tab.
4) Adjust the Minimum server memory and Maximum server memory. See below for recommended values.
5) Click OK.
Recommended Microsoft SQL Memory Values
It is recommended to set the Maximum server memory size to approximately half of the available memory size for the VDS. The table below contains recommended values based on the memory of your VDS.
| VDS Memory |
Minimum server memory (MB) |
Maximum server memory (MB) |
| 256 MB |
15 |
75 - 95 |
| 512 MB |
25 |
125 - 140 |
| 1 GB |
50 |
200 - 250 |
Article ID: 366, Created: 4/24/2009 at 10:24 AM, Modified: 12/28/2012 at 9:52 AM