Managing AWE Memory

Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 uses the Microsoft Windows® 2000 Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) API to support very large memory sizes. SQL Server 2000 can use as much memory as Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server allows. For more information about the AWE API, search on "awe memory" in the MSDN® Online Microsoft Web site.

Note  This feature is available only in the SQL Server 2000 Enterprise and Developer editions.

Using AWE Memory

To use AWE memory, you must run the SQL Server 2000 database engine under a Windows 2000 account that has been assigned the Windows 2000 lock pages in memory privilege.

SQL Server Setup will automatically grant the MSSQLServer service account permission to use the Lock Page in Memory option. If you are starting an instance of SQL Server 2000 from the command prompt using sqlservr.exe, you must manually assign this permission to the interactive user's account using the Windows 2000 Group Policy utility (gpedit.msc), or SQL Server will be unable to use AWE memory when not running as a service.

To enable the Lock Page in Memory option