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Alex Angas
Asked: 2010-06-16 17:39:36 +0800 CST

What are the minimum RAM requirements for Server Core 2008 R2?

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For the purposes of running Active Directory and DNS Server, what are the minimum memory requirements for Server Core 2008 R2?

I've read of someone using 256MB. This seems pretty low although summing up the memory usage when running tasklist suggests it's OK.

Is there any way to know?

windows-server-2008 hardware memory windows-server-core

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Server 2008 R2 Core takes about 350 MB just to start. If you have a smaller AD and DNS install you can easily fit it in 512MB (without swapping going crazy). Anything smaller and you'll pretty much be swapping non-stop.

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  2. I was running them on 256mb for DNS only - worked for some time ,but sometimes DNS would stop responding. Up to 512mb now, and it works like a charm. Hosts half a dozen zones only.

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  3. I couldn't find anything specific to core installations but the minimum RAM requirements for Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 is 512MB.

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  4. I would not recommend less than 512MB. I assume you're looking to run this virtually - I agree that the bump from 256MB to 512MB will save you the swapping which in turn will save load on your storage backend. For the "price" of the extra RAM the tradeoff is most likely worthwhile.

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