WSUS - Limit SQL (Windows Internal Database) memory

You may discover your WSUS servers SQL instance using most of the available memory – to limit its maximum memory usage, you can either do it via command line or via gui.

Configure via GUI

1. Open SQL Management Studio
2. Connect to \\.\pipe\Microsoft##WID\tsql\query for WSUS 4 (Server 2012) or \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query for WSUS 3 using Windows Authentication
3. Right click the server in Object Explorer and choose Properties
   
4. Select Memory from the left hand side, then specify Maximum server memory (in MB) to whatever you want.
   
5. Hit OK and then restart the sql service

Configure via command line

1. Open a cmd window
2. Enter the following command depending on version:
   • For WSUS 4 (Server 2012:

     osql -E -S \\.\pipe\Microsoft##WID\tsql\query

   • For WSUS 3:

     osql -E -S \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query

3. Enter the following commands:

   exec sp_configure 'show advanced option', '1';
   reconfigure;

4. To view currently set max server memory:

   exec sp_configure;
   go

5. To reconfigure:

   exec sp_configure 'max server memory', 2048;
   reconfigure with override;
   go

6. quit

7. Restart the SQL service