DYNAMIC DATABASE MEMORY MANAGEMENT POLICIES

A database engine is provided with memory management policies to dynamically configure an area of memory called a buffer pool into which data pages are held during processing. The data pages are also buffered as an I/O (input/output) stream when read and written to a persistent storage medium, such as a hard disk, through use of a system file cache that is managed by the computer's operating system. The memory management policies implement capping the amount of memory used within the buffer pool to minimize the number of data pages that are double-buffered (i.e., held in both the buffer pool and system file cache). In addition, trimming data pages from the buffer pool, after the database engine completes all pending operations and requests, frees additional memory and further minimizes the number of processes associated with the database.