Online Documentation for SQL Administrator for SQL Server
Memory
The Memory section of the Server Properties dialog allows you to configure the instance of Microsoft® SQL Server by setting options pertaining to memory usage.
Use Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) memory
Under Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2005 (and higher) can use Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) memory to further assist in balancing its own memory requirements with those of the operating system. This balancing between SQL Server and the operating system is subject to the constraints of the Minimum server memory and Maximum server memory options.
Use the two server memory options, Minimum amount of server memory and Maximum amount of server memory, to reconfigure the amount of memory (in megabytes) in the buffer pool used by the instance of SQL Server.
By default, SQL Server can change its memory requirements dynamically on the basis of available system resources. The default setting for Minimum server memory is 0, and the default setting for Maximum server memory is 2147483647. The minimum amount of memory that can be specified for Maximum amount of server memory is 16 MB.
In SQL Server 2000/2005/2008 the Index creation memory option controls the maximum initial amount of memory allocated for index creation. If additional amount of memory is required for index creation operation, and it is available, the server will use additional memory thus exceeding the setting of this option. If additional memory is not available, the memory that has been already allocated will be used for index creation.
Use the Minimum amount of memory for query execution option to specify the minimum amount of memory (in kilobytes) that will be allocated for execution of a query. For example, if Minimum memory per query is set to 2,048 KB, the query is guaranteed to get at least that much total memory. You can set Minimum memory per query to any value from 512 up to 2,147,483,647 KB (appr. 2 GB). The default value is 1,024 KB.
To enable editing this field uncheck Self-configuring option