We have implemented a new SQL Server 2005 Enterprise (64-bit) in our environment, and I continually see SQL Server grabbing more and more memory from the server, but never releasing the memory back. I have to stop and restart SQL Server in order for the memroy to return to normal. I know there is a difference between 32-bit and 64-bit environments regarding memory and addressability, but I do not see this on my 32-bit SQL Servers.
There are 4 databases on the server that we use as the central repository for our BI server (another server). SQL Server is the only application installed on the server and the server has 64 GB of memory.
Does anyone know why or can help out on why SQL does not release memory once a query has completed Thanks for your help
Michael
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise 64-bit does not release memory
VBScriptor
Sql will continue to grab up to whatever you've configured the max server memory to be...if you haven't defined a max, it will continue to grab up to almost all the memory depending on different considerations. This is normal for a Sql environment, however if you need a certain amount of memory to remain for OS/other application use on the server, if you configure the max memory option, Sql will never exceed that (this is the same for 32 and 64bit environments...assuming you aren't using AWE and other things for example).
Sql will also dynamically release memory back to the OS if the OS requests it so to speak...if the OS never asks for it back, Sql keeps it...again, normal operations for a Sql environment.
See the following papers for more discussion on Sql memory management:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/dnsqldev/html/sqldev_01262004.asp
HTH