What size should the pagefile be on a 64-bit Windows Server 2003 for a kernel memory dump?
In 32-bit Windows Server 2003, the biggest kernel memory dump would be limited to 2GB in size if you had 512 MB, 1GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 6 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB of physical RAM.
So it was easy for administrators to setup a pagefile to get a kernel only memory dump. We did not have to worry about disk space.
With 64-bit, things change, the kernel address space can get up to 8TB.
First, you want to make sure that your pagefile is setup for optimal performance:
889654 How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP
If you don't want a pagefile but want to get a kernel only memory dump on a 64-bit Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2:
The size of your kernel address memory will change according to:
- Hardware running such as the number of processors etc…
- Leaking kernel resources such as paged, nonpaged, system pte’s which might differ with the uptime of the server.
The values below are just samples of the sizes of kernel only memory.dmp.
Warning: You should test your kernel only memory dump.
2 GB of RAM
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Min 228 MB
Max 342 MB
4 GB of RAM
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Min 229 MB
Max 394 MB
5 GB of RAM
--------------
Min 548 MB
Max N/A
8 GB of RAM
--------------
Min 901 MB
Max N/A
10 GB of RAM
-----------------
Min 571 MB
Max 675 MB
16 GB of RAM
----------------
Min 1.30 GB
Max 2.00 GB
20 GB of RAM
----------------
Min 2.05 GB
Max 5.00 GB
32 GB of RAM
----------------
Min 1.11 GB
Max 9.05 GB
64 GB of RAM
----------------
Min N/A
Max N/A
96 GB of RAM
----------------
Min N/A
Max N/A
128 GB of RAM
----------------
Min N/A
Max N/A
256 GB of RAM
----------------
Min N/A
Max N/A