Take the 2-minute tour ×

We have production server(windows server 2008) with 8GB Ram and around 15 websites are hosted on the server. What is the optimum memory that needs to be reserved for OS, so that remaining memory can be divided between the websites. We don't have any other processes or applications running on the server other than websites.

share|improve this question

1 Answer 1

up vote 8 down vote accepted

You can't limit the amount of memory the OS uses. Assuming you have a separate Application pool for each site, you should set limits for each one of those instead.

share|improve this answer
Thanks Dan, Suppose If I have reserved memory for each application pool then what happens If OS needs more memory, does it recycle other application pools to fetch memory? –  kishore Aug 10 '10 at 16:06
It would hit the page file. –  DanBig Aug 10 '10 at 16:10
I am sorry, I should have asked my question in other way. So in 8GB Ram, how much memory can I divide between the application pools. If I allocate 7.5GB for application pools, would it be a performance hit, beacuase whenever OS needs more than 500mb it hits page files? –  kishore Aug 10 '10 at 16:16
Memory for application pools is a limit you're enforcing, not a reservation; application pools aren't going to use 500 MB each if they don't need them, and should memory pressure arise, their memory could very well be paged out, too. –  Massimo Aug 10 '10 at 16:32
thanks Massimo, I am trying to avoid paging out situation for OS, so that it wont impact the performance of the system –  kishore Aug 10 '10 at 16:50

Your Answer


