Please help me understand memory usage with Server 2008. I am running a Windows Server 2008 machine under VMWare. Currently Task Manager states I am using 920Mb (90%) of the 1Gb memory I have allocated on the server. If you look under the Physical Memory box you see Total is 1022, Cached is 291, and Free is 28. I am perplexed as to where the 920Mb is defined; if I total the Working Set (Memory) I end up approx 800Mb and if I total the Commit Size I end up over 1Gb.
Going beyond that how is the Cache size determined and can this be adjusted? From what I understand with Server 2008 Windows will take all of the memory that is not being used by processes and allocate it to cache to improve i/o etc.
The problem is this leaves barely any free memory which means that Windows then uses virtual memory to compensate. If I understand this correctly Virtual memory is the Page File which means since you are out of memory Windows starts moving data back and forth from the Page File.
I'm not sure how this makes sense as Windows takes your memory for cache but then slows down the PC by making it pull from the Page File (disk)?
Can someone please enlighten me on how to better understand how the Physical memory usage is reported along with the Physical Memory % considering adding the columns from Processes page doesn't add up.
Also if I can limit the Cached memory and if so how?
Windows Server 2008 Memory Usage