>The following is the configuration of the server:
>1. Windows 2003 server
>2. SQL Express 2005
>3. 2GB of RAM
>
>The server is running 24/7, I noticed that the Memory Usage of "sqlservr.exe process"
>in the Task Manager reaches 1.3GB. These are my questions?
>
>1. Is this normal?
>2. Will this contribute to slow process and hanging?
>3. Is there a way to reset the memory usage to normal?

This may be completely normal if the SQL Server is being actively used. If, when you check the total RAM usage on the server (Commit Charge - Total), it's less than the 2GB of installed physical memory, you should be OK. If total commit charge is greater than physical RAM, the server is paging to disk (virtual memory) and it will slow down a lot.

It's possible to limit the amount of RAM that a SQL Server instance uses. Sergey points out some manual methods. If you want to do this via a GUI, you can download and install the free SQL Server Management Studio Express product from Microsoft. With that, you attach to the instance, right-click on the instance and go into its properties, then adjust maximum RAM usage on the property sheet. Be aware that SQL Server will actually use up to 50% more RAM than the maximum you specify e.g. if you specify 512MB max, you may see it go as high as 768MB. SQL Server Express 2005 nominally uses 1GB RAM maximum, this effect is probably why you're seeing 1.3GB use on your server.

If everything is working OK I'd be inclined to leave it alone. A single instance of SQL Server on a machine not heavily loaded with other things is actually reasonably good at managing its RAM use to strike a good balance between itself, the OS and disk cache. If you limit SQL Server's RAM usage you may find SQL operations slow down.

There is one scenario where you might want to limit SQL Server's RAM usage:

- if SQL Server is not used very often, but when it is used, it is used hard, and grabs a lot of RAM
- in that case, SQL Server is not very good at reducing its RAM usage when its load goes down, so other processes may be RAM-starved