Thread: postgres on Windows: PAE and max memory

I have a server running Windows Server 2003 32-bit that has 8GB of
memory.  Our system administrator installed PAE (Physical Address
Extensions) which I know MS SQL Server will use, but I'm not sure if
PostgreSQL will.

Can PostgreSQL use the memory above 2GB and 4GB?

On Apr 24, 2007, at 8:50 PM, William Garrison wrote:
> I have a server running Windows Server 2003 32-bit that has 8GB of
> memory.  Our system administrator installed PAE (Physical Address
> Extensions) which I know MS SQL Server will use, but I'm not sure
> if PostgreSQL will.
>
> Can PostgreSQL use the memory above 2GB and 4GB?

Have you tried it? :)

I don't know off-hand if it can or not, but keep in mind that unlike
most databases, PostgreSQL tends to rely on the OS helping with
caching, so you don't generally want to give all your memory to
PostgreSQL to use.
--
Jim Nasby                                            jim@nasby.net
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)

Jim Nasby wrote:
> On Apr 24, 2007, at 8:50 PM, William Garrison wrote:
>> I have a server running Windows Server 2003 32-bit that has 8GB of
>> memory.  Our system administrator installed PAE (Physical Address
>> Extensions) which I know MS SQL Server will use, but I'm not sure if
>> PostgreSQL will.
>>
>> Can PostgreSQL use the memory above 2GB and 4GB?
>
> Have you tried it? :)
>
> I don't know off-hand if it can or not, but keep in mind that unlike
> most databases, PostgreSQL tends to rely on the OS helping with caching,
> so you don't generally want to give all your memory to PostgreSQL to use.

PostgreSQL should be able to use it just fine for sort memory, as long
as it's split between different backends. You can't use it all for
shared memory. And as Jim says, leave a lot for the file cache.

//Magnus