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Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express - Multiple databases?

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by cburnham

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I am an SQL newbie. Here is the pertinent information for this question:

-- My Windows 2000 Server has SQL Server 2005 Express (the freebie) on it.

-- My server's hardware is dual Xeon 2.8 processors and 4 GB of RAM.

--I have clinical server-based software that is being upgraded to be SQL-based.

--There will be six separate instances of this software that will be accessed. For example, I have several clinics and each will access its own installation (there is not one giant database that they all access - six separate databases).

--The six databases total about 900 MB.

--Four of these databases will be accessed remotely via Terminal Services.

Question: Can SQL Express handle six databases and can I set it up this way?

Any guidance you SQL experts can give me will be much appreciated.

4 replies

by tony hopkinson

required for a definitive answer.

It can handle it, given the machine is n't doing lots' of other things , the volume of transactions isn't too high....
The extra overhead of six dbs vs one big one is negligible.

My concern would be maintenance and scaling.
If you had to fix one clinic's system, you may have to turn off the other five.
If master went nipples up, you lose everybody...

I'd have a look at having six instances of sqlserver running, each with one database.
A bit more overhead, but if you wanted to go three and three, swapping stuff about would be a fairly trivial exercise.

by vette95

I would recommend contacting the vendor to find out if they require SQL Server Standard edition for the database switch. Most DBAs can make applications work on the Express Edition and even use the Express edition for multiple databases. However, if you have problems with the application on a non-supported database configuration, your vendor may side-step the support call until you get the database configured they way they want it, sad but true.

With the kind of hardware that is in place, maybe you could use virtualization? I am not very familiar with actual practices, but it would also help with isolation of the databases for application or client database specific related issues. Then again, that may create more of an administration head-ache.

To answer your question, yes it is possible, though not really recommended due to the risk. If you could quantify the down time for all installations in terms of cost, you may be able to justify the purchase of the full product. Usually not hard to do if the system is used to collect payments of any kind, those doctors want their money!

by adger

We have a foreign developer for a ODBC (quickbooks)connected SQL based report generator. It has no security and we need to deploy many instances on citrix to remote clients to isolate them.

We are concerned about the load on the server and what other behavior may present in this scenario.

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