current database and its confiuration

[AlwaysWilling]

Hi folks. My boss wants me to find out if the current database and its confiuration is right, so can someone help me decide? I'm not that knowledgable in this, and this was just thrown in my lap this afternoon.

We are using MS SQL Server 8 on a DELL 1750 machine. The machine has 1GB of RAM and 40GB of FREE space. My boss wants to know:
1. Can the dB handle about 5000 new users registeration?
2. Can the server handle up to a million hits per day without dying or straining?
3. Is the dB size big enough to handle the potential new users? (I THINK the dB size is 63MB and space available is 29MB.)

The server has SQL Server, CF6, and Mail Server runing on it.

Thank you.

 

[Catadmin]

FYI: SQL Server 8 is actually SQL Server 2000. You might want to reference it as that in the future so you don't confuse people who don't know about the 8 / 9 thing that SQL 2000 & 2k5 use.

Also, database size has nothing to do with the number of users it can handle. The hardware, the network connections and the SQL Server properties all deal with end user connections. And, truth be told, I don't think 1 GB of RAM and 40GB of hard drive space is going to be useful if you're looking at a potential explosion of queries and database writes.

Let's start at the beginning, though. You said:

Can the dB handle about 5000 new users registeration?

Depends on what you mean by that statement. If you're refering to people adding it to their Enterprise Manager tool, then it should be as long as you have those people set up in Securite via a Windows group (HIGHLY recommended if you're going to have that many users). However, if you're talking people accessing the server through an Access .ADP or a different application, it depends on Security and your network setup.

In order to answer this question, you're going to have to tell us a little bit more about how these users are going to be accessing SQL, what they're going to be doing with it, etc. What do you mean by "Registering"?

Can the server handle up to a million hits per day without dying or straining?

Ummm, doubt it. Sounds like your box is majorly old. Of course, part of this depends on the CPU(s) you have on it too. At my office, we don't have nearly that number of hits per day and our old box (we just upgraded) had 7.4 GB RAM, 2 dual core processors hyperthreaded as 4, and 3 logical drives with a total of 192 GB. C: & D: were the local hard drive divided into 8 GB for the OS & Programs. D: was the support drive set at 26 GB and the E: drive was 159 GB for all the DBs, backups, etc. The E: was on a SAN with RAID 5. And this hardware setup was barely enough for us to keep up with. Consider we probably have less than 250 users, and you're wanting to support over 5000 with the box you currently have?

For the number of hits you're talking about, and the number of users, I'd look into getting a cluster set up with 4 processors, a LOT more RAM, and as much hard drive / SAN space as you can possible muster. Anything less will just give you headaches.

Hope this helps some.




Catadmin - MCDBA, MCSA
"No, no. Yes. No, I tried that. Yes, both ways. No, I don't know. No again. Are there any more questions?"
-- Xena, "Been There, Done That"

 

[GUJUm0deL]

AlwaysWilling, you might also want to consider moving the SQL Server onto a server of its own. SQL Server is known to be a memory hog, and having and CF on the same server could be troublesome down the road.

Also condider, if one CF application stalls the server and you need to reboot then the dB is also offline. So if the dB is being accessed elsewhere (like another site hosted on a different server) then that site is also down while the box is being rebooted.

____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com

 

[AlwaysWilling]

Hi Catadmin. Thanks for the reply. What I mean by users is users that register from the website. These users can then access 'members only' content.

I kinda had a feeling that the server load depends more on the server machine itself and not on the dB makeup. I will check the hardware profile of the DELL 1750 machine and let you all know, so you all can help me decipher this.

Hi GUJUm0deL. Thanks for the reply as well. I will let my boss know this as well. But it does make sense moving the SQL Server onto a different machine.

 

[Catadmin]

One thing to remember before redesigning your hardware setup. The exact server load will depend on what information your members will have access to. For example, if they are always going to a webpage that will be relatively static over the course of a few days or more, then you can cache the information and it will relieve some of the I/O burden. Which means you might not need to worry about an overly expensive hard drive configuration.

However, if the content is constantly changing, or the members are able to add stuff to the site, then you're definitely going to need more processing threads available, plus a better hard drive setup (multiple HDs, SAN preferably).

Either way, keep in mind that you have a Single Point Of Failure if you use your current setup to serve up the website. As GUJUmOdeL pointed out, this means when the box goes down for any reason, your entire website source is down. The most important questions to take back to your boss right now are "How much time can we afford to lose if the server goes down?" and "How much time does the server absolutely HAVE to be up?" If the answers are "None-Little" and "24/7", your current setup is woefully inadequite.



Catadmin - MCDBA, MCSA
"No, no. Yes. No, I tried that. Yes, both ways. No, I don't know. No again. Are there any more questions?"
-- Xena, "Been There, Done That"

 

[katgirl]

Hi AlwaysWilling,

What you need to tell your boss is - you need to hire a good consultant, plain old.

The extra costs up front MORE THAN OUTWEIGH the headache later down the road from having a less-than-adequate system designed by someone who really didn't know what they were doing. Visting a bulletin board is not sufficient

You are not the person to be making this deision, nor should you *have* to be. You need to call in a expert. Belive me I've been down this road - don't go there.

Good luck.