priority boost Option

Use the priority boost option to specify whether Microsoft® SQL Server™ should run at a higher Microsoft Windows NT® scheduling priority than other processes on the same computer. If you set this option to 1, SQL Server runs at a higher priority in the Windows NT scheduler. The default is 0 (run at priority base 7 on a single processor computer and at priority base 15 on an SMP computer). Setting priority boost to 1 changes the Windows NT priority base to 15 on a single processor computer and 24 on an SMP computer.

priority boost should be used only on a computer dedicated to SQL Server, and with an SMP configuration.

Caution Boosting the priority too high may drain resources from essential operating system and network functions, resulting in problems shutting down SQL Server or using other Windows NT tasks on the server.

In some circumstances, setting priority boost to anything other than the default can cause the following communication error to be logged in the SQL Server error log:

Error: 17824, Severity: 10, State: 0 Unable to write to ListenOn connection '<servername>', loginname '<login ID>', hostname '<hostname>'.

OS Error: 64, The specified network name is no longer available.

Error 17824 indicates that SQL Server encountered connection problems while attempting to write to a client. These communication problems may be caused by network problems, if the client has stopped responding, or if the client has been restarted. However, error 17824 does not always indicate a network problem. Check priority boost and make sure that the option is set to the default. Deviating from the default may cause error 17824.

priority boost is an advanced option. If you are using the sp_configure system stored procedure to change the setting, you can change priority boost only when show advanced options is set to 1. The setting takes effect after stopping and restarting the server.

To set the priority boost option

See Also