I configured 3 of the development sql servers to use the available memory last night. 2 had 8gb; 1 had 4. The one with 4 just required adding the /3GB and a restart; for the other two I modified the boot.ini, restarted the server, and then ran sp_configure to set the max memory and to enable awe. They only claimed 3gb of the available memory though.
After some searching I found hotfix 899761 is needed for sql server 2000 sp4. If the sql server version is 8.00.039 and it isn’t using all the available memory, apply the hotfix and get to 8.00.040. How long has sp4 been out and where have I been? A story for another time.
I’ve been referring to this article for years to find what combo of PAE and 3GB to use.
The first time I did this on Windows Server 2003 I remember crapping in my pants because I couldn’t figure out why sql server didn’t grab the memory like it did with Windows 2000.