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We are assembling a new Server, using 32 GB RAM and Server 2008 R2 Standard. We like to test some kind of RAMDisk to decide whether we upgrade to Enterprise and add a lot of memory or not.

Problem is, that we cannot test it because Windows claims all existing Memory.

Question : How can we define, that Server 2008 R2 is using only 16 GByte of the installed 32 GByte and ignores the other RAM ?

helpless
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    I've read your question a few times and I can't figure out what you're asking. (The answers seem to have misunderstood the question, I think.) What do you mean by "define"? What precisely do you want help doing? What is the purpose of the RAM disk exactly? – David Schwartz Apr 04 '12 at 20:06
  • maybe I am missing something here, but can't you just remove 16 GB of RAM from the server and then it will only use 16 GB because that's all it has. Seems more straightforward than simulating less RAM for the OS. – August May 11 '12 at 20:16
  • Even if you use a RAMDISK, wouldn't it swap out to disk if your memory started getting filled? Or is it more of a kernel mode thing? – Bigbio2002 May 11 '12 at 21:13

3 Answers3

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There is no longer a native way of making RAM disks in Windows (Alas poor ramdisk.sys...) therefore you will need to use a third party application. The third party application will be able to manage the creation and destruction of a RAM disk in spite of Windows claiming it all.

For further reference, check out this ServerFault thread titled "What do you use for a RAM disk on Windows Server?"

Community
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Wesley
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if you use a third party tool to create a ramdisk that consumes 16GB of memory, windows will be left with the remaining 16 to work with. So that actually should address your issue, assuming the RAM disk instantly steals 16GB of ram.

Eric C. Singer
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  • Yes, we are evaluating a 3rd party tool. I will adress the issue to them - thanks for the fast and clear answer. – helpless Apr 04 '12 at 17:34
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The other answers were trying to get at your underlying question. And I suspect that any reasonable RAM disk package would automatically manage the problem for you.

But you asked a direct question, and direct questions deserve answers. If you want to limit the amount of RAM that Windows uses, open a command prompt with administrator rights and type:

bcdedit /set REMOVEMEMORY number-of-megabytes-to-remove

About all this would accomplish in your situation, though would be to allow you to test your machine to see that it still runs well after your give memory to a RAM disk.

Jake Oshins
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