Allocating Hardware Resources

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

A typical recommendation for DNS server hardware includes the following:

  • Single-processor computers with 400 megahertz (MHz) Pentium II CPUs.

  • 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM for each processor.

  • At least 4 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space.

  • A network adapter.

Using faster CPUs, more RAM, and larger hard drives improves the scalability and performance of your DNS servers. DNS servers use approximately 100 bytes of RAM for each resource record. Using this figure, you can calculate how much memory you need.