Sql Server Editions - Standard vs. Enterprise 1

[chelandrew]

Any good places to find objective comparisons, besides microsoft. Don't need failover/clustering or more than 4 cpus. Had read that standard edition does not allow concurrent full table scans. Any performance differences? 15-25 users, 750meg database, 50 tables. Heavy query, light update, OLAP desired. 8-10 table joins per query max. Am experienced Oracle/Unix dba/developer. Out of my element here. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[tlbroadbent]

Brian Moran of SQL Server Magazine compared versions in a column. You can read the review online. Mr. Moran is decidely pro-Microsoft but the article has good information.

http://www.sqlmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=15657

From my perspective, you should purchase the standard edition. We run the standard version on all 6 production SQL Servers in our shop. Our largest server has 45 user databases from 1MB to 4GB in size. It has four processors and 2 GB RAM. This server averages about 160-200 concurrent connections throughout the day.

We serve up data to web pages, third party applications and internally developed application, primarily written in VB. We've been very pleased with SQL Server standard edition performance. Terry L. Broadbent
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[chelandrew]

Thank you, appreciate the info. My concern is the 120 day evaluation copy MS sends out is the Enterprise edition. If I evaluate based on this edition and then purchase standard edition... don't want any surprises. What about locking? I'm used to Oracle taking care of all this. Performance? Some say don't use temp tables, some others do. Cursors? Those were a good thing in Oracle, now I here don't use them in Sql Server. Hmmm.. Maybe I need a good book, any suggestions?

 

[tlbroadbent]

For most functions the versions are identical. I have never used the Enterprise Edition so I personally can't compare. I can answer some of your questions.

1) Performance of Standard edition is excellent.
2) Temp tables can be used. They can be abused. There are some good articles about using temp tables on various sites. I find temp tables to be very useful and performance is good when I remember certain rules.
3) Cursors have their place. However, they are also overused, usually by procedural programmers who cna't figure out how to update a table without "stepping through it." I avoid cursors as much as possible because they are not efficient.
4) For SQL programming, I like "The Guru's Cuide to Transact-SQL" by Ken Henderson. I'm sure there are other excellent books out there. Many have been mentioned in this forum. I have "Inside SQL Server 2000" by Kalen Delaney as a reference. I have used "SQL Server 6.5 Unleashed" and "SQL 7 Administrator's Guide." Terry L. Broadbent
FAQ183-874 contains tips for posting questions in these forums.
NOTE: Reference to the FAQ is not directed at any individual.