Our customer has a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on Windows 2003 Server Enterprise, R2, SP2, 32bit. Running on Intel Xeon X5560 @2.80GHz, with 8 GB of RAM.
Occasionally, the users complained that the access to the server was slow. Although, that might be affected by other factors like workstation hardware, antivirus, etc.
But, I am thinking of maximizing the SQL Server itself.
I read about the "SQL AWE" option which could increase the memory allocation that can be used on the 32 bit OS.
Right now, the AWE is not enabled, I checked using "dbcc memorystatus", and I got result:
Memory Manager:
VM Reserved = 1694984 KB
VM Committed = 1691528 KB
AWE Allocated = 0
Reserved Memory = 1024
Reserved Memory In Use = 0
As I understood correctly, this 8GB of RAM is not being used optimally due to the 32bit OS.
Am I in the right direction here? I meant, if I enabled the SQL AWE, it will improve the SQL performance.
Note that I cannot change the hardware, and I cannot change the OS to 64 bits (not supported by our application).
Thanks.