Help with Cluster

I inherited a SQL 2000 Enterprise active/passive cluster under AS. Both
nodes run on identical HP DL580's with 4 Xeon processors and 8GB memory.
The former dba attempted to setup AWE memory but missed a couple of fine
points. The first thing missed: the boot.ini only has the /PAE and no /3GB
switch. The second thing missed: sp_configure 'awe enabled' is set to 0.
As a result, SQL gets only 2GB of virtual memory and 0GB of PAE memory.

My question is how do I fix this on an active/passive cluster. Here is what
I think. Add the /3GB switch to the passive node and reboot the passive
node. Now it seems I am in trouble. If I pause the active node, I cause
the passive node to wake up, but the memory images do not match. If I start
with the active node and add the /3GB switch and reboot, I fail-over to the
passive. Everything is still OK, the memory matches until I reboot, then
the memory maps do not match.

So, do I break the cluster, install the /3GB switch on each box and then
recreate the cluster? Isn't there an easier way?

Also, can I enable AWE before I begin the /3GB shuffle. I seems I could
avoid a second dance.

Please help.

GaryGary,

I can answer one of your questions.

> Also, can I enable AWE before I begin the /3GB shuffle. I seems I could
> avoid a second dance.

You do not need to use the "/3GB" switch in order to use AWE memory.
You may find an explanation of each switch helpful:

The "/PAE" switch allows Windows to use memory above the 4GB native
limit. So this switch is needed to enable Windows to address memory
above 4GB. (Additionally, you must use a Server Operating System that
supports more than 4GB. You're using Windows 2000 Advanced Server,
which allows up to 8GB to be addressed.)

The "/3GB" switch allows Windows applications to use 3GB out of the
4GB Windows supports natively thereby leaving 1GB of memory for the
Windows OS. By default (i.e., not using the "/3GB" switch),
applications will only use 2GB out of the first 4GB on the server and
leave 2GB for the Windows OS.

You have a total of 8GB of RAM. If you don't use the "/3GB" switch,
then SQL Server will still have 6GB of RAM available to use. You may
prefer to leave the 2GB available to the OS rather than take it for
SQL Server. But at you stated, you must set the "awe enabled" option
from "0" to "1" and restart the SQL Server service. In case you are
not aware, AWE does not dynamically manage memory like SQL Server does
by default, so if you have more than one instance of SQL Server
running on each node in the cluster, you may not want to use AWE
memory.

You may find the following link helpful:

AWE Memory SQL Server Performance Tuning Tips
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/awe_memory.asp

HOW TO: Configure Memory for More Than 2 GB in SQL Server
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...KB;EN-US;274750

Large Memory Support Is Available in Windows 2000 and Windows Server
2003
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...b;EN-US;q283037

SQL Server Books Online Topics "Managing AWE Support", "Effects of min
and max server memory"; "Memory Architecture"; "Memory Architecture";
"Server Memory Options"; "SQL Server Memory Pool"

I hope you find this information helpful.

Regards,

Matt Patterson
HP Services
Business Critical Enterprise Team
Microsoft Database Supportsql