Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Monitoring Memory

Memory, like a processor, is divided into segments for each process running on the server. If there is a demand for more memory than is available, the operating system has to use virtual memory to supplement the physical memory. Virtual memory is storage allocated on the hard disk; it is named PAGEFILE.SYS under Windows.

It is important to remember that when the operating system or SQL Server isn’t able to use memory to find something and has to use virtual memory stored on the disk, performance degrades. You need to work on minimizing this situation, known as swapping or page faulting.

Monitoring Memory with Performance Monitor

Table 35.4 reflects the main performance objects and counters that are best utilized to monitor ...