Eric Grange's questions

I have a Windows 2012 server configured with two SSD under a Software RAID 1 (controlled by Windows), under that configuration the optimization tool is not supported.

Is the TRIM still scheduled/performed by the OS, just not visibly so, and with no manual controls?

Is there a way to force it, given it's a simple mirroring RAID, and the OS is capable of TRIM when the SSD are not RAID'ed?

I found an "option" early on, but it's obviously not suitable for use in production: detach one disk from the raid (thus killing the RAID), perform the TRIM on the single-disk, then rebuild the RAID.

(the SSDs are 120GB Intel Sandforce in case that matters, they host several databases, are under constant read/write 24/7, and there is a data rotation of several gigabytes per day)

What are the minimal memory usage for Windows 2008 & 2012 server editions?

I'm referring to all things OS-related. The machine would be a VM with a dedicated web server software, that wouldn't rely on the OS (ie. no IIS, no domains, minimal local database) and wouldn't use much memory (less than 50 MB), though CPU usage might occasionnally spike under load.

I'm asking because there are options for hosting where you're charged by the MB of RAM, and for a such a low-overhead server, all the RAM usage would essentially be used by idle OS services. So anything that can lower the baseline cost would be great.

Is 2008 a better starting point for low memory usage? Of can 2012 be coerced lower?

Any pointers on the above?

PS: I've managed to get a standard Windows 2008 down to 192 MB Physical when no RDP sessions are active, by stopping all unnecessary services, disabling COMPort, Floppy & CDROM devices, and minimizing cache file size with the SetSystemFileCacheSize() API.