Enabling AWE Support

Unlike SQL Server 2000, you can take advantage of AWE in the Standard Edition of SQL Server 2005 as well as the Enterprise and Developer Editions.

The first thing that you MUST do is to enable the the “Lock Pages In Memory” option for the service account that you are running SQL Server with. In order to do this, follow these steps :-

1. Click on Start –> Run. In the Run box type gpedit.msc
2. In the left hand pane of the Group Policy Editor window, drill down Computer Configuration – Windows Settings – Security and finally expand Local Policies – User Rights Assignment.
3. In the right hand details pane, double click on Lock Pages In Memory
4. Click Add User Or Group and enter the relevant account details.
5. Click Apply then  OK

NOTE – You will need to restart the SQL Server Service at this point in order for the change to take affect.

Now that Lock Pages In Memory has been enabled, you can enable AWE. The simplest way to do this is from Management Studio :-

1. Right Click on the server in Management Studio and select properties from the menu
2. Select the Memory page from the list on the left
3. Put a tick in the “Use AWE to allocate memory” box
4. Set the minimum and maximum settings appropriatley.

You must put a maximum value in otherwise SQL could take up all the available memory leaving just 256MB for the OS.!

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