Setting Min and Max Server Memory Setting
Configuring the min and max server memory settings for SQL Server has a number of things to consider prior to making changes. Before we jump into those considerations, let’s learn what the min and max server memory options do.
What does the min server memory option do?
The min server memory option specifies the minimum amount of memory utilized by the SQL Server buffer pool. It may seem that this should mean that when SQL Server starts it will automatically grab the memory equal to the min server memory value. However, this is not what happens. Instead, SQL Server acquires system memory as needed to process a workload. Consequently, if the SQL Server workload remains low, it is possible that the min server memory value is never reached. However, once it is reached SQL Server will not release an amount of memory that would take it below that minimum setting.