How SAP ASE Allocates Memory

The size of SAP ASE logical pages (2, 4, 8, or 16K) determines the server’s space allocation.

Each allocation page, object allocation map (OAM) page, data page, index page, text page, and so on are built on a logical page. For example, if the logical page size of SAP ASE is 8K, each of these page types are 8K in size. All of these pages consume the entire size specified by the size of the logical page. Larger logical pages allow you to create larger rows, which can improve your performance because SAP ASE accesses more data each time it reads a page. For example, a 16K page can hold 8 times the amount of data as a 2K page, an 8K page holds 4 times as much data as a 2K page, and so on, for all the sizes for logical pages.

The logical page size is a server-wide setting; you cannot have databases that have various sizes of logical pages within the same server. All tables are appropriately sized so that the row size is no greater than the current page size of the server. That is, rows cannot span multiple pages.

Regardless of the logical page size for which it is configured, SAP ASE allocates space for objects (tables, indexes, text page chains) in extents, each of which is eight logical pages. That is, if a server is configured for 2K logical pages, it allocates one extent, 16K, for each of these objects; if a server is configured for 16K logical pages, it allocates one extent, 128K, for each of these objects.

This is also true for system tables. If your server has many small tables, space consumption can be quite large if the server uses larger logical pages. For example, for a server configured for 2K logical pages, systypes—with approximately 31 short rows, a clustered and a nonclustered index—reserves 3 extents, or 48K of memory. If you migrate the server to use 8K pages, the space reserved for systypes is still 3 extents, 192K of memory. For a server configured for 16K, systypes requires 384K of disk space. For small tables, the space unused in the last extent can become significant on servers using larger logical page sizes.

Databases are also affected by larger page sizes. Each database includes the system catalogs and their indexes. If you migrate from a smaller to larger logical page size, you must account for the amount of disk space each database requires. This table lists the minimum size for a database on each of the logical page sizes.

Minimum database sizes

Logical page size

Minimum database size