Is SQL Server Express designed for production use?

Per the subject line :
Is SQL Server Express designed for production use?

hi Juan,

yes, it is.. are you experimenting inconveniences?

regards

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re:
> are you experimenting inconveniences?

None.

I was wondering, mainly, whether SQL Express differed from MSDE
...which wasn't designed for production use.

To further the question :

Express will only bind to one CPU at a time, and it cannot run queries in parallel.

Express cannot use more than 1 GB of RAM at a time for queries and data pages.
SQL Server 2005 will handle many more concurrent queries than the Express version.

No one database in Express can be larger than 4 GB.

Data mining, Data Transformation Services (DTS)
and reporting functions are not available for SQL Express.

Other functions not available in Express include clustering/mirroring,
full-text indexing/searching, SQLMail, indexed views, partitioned views and SQL Agent.

I.O.W., although it will work fine for small traffic websites,
I would have thought it isn't designed for heavy-duty production websites.

Maybe we need to distinguish between
"light traffic" and "heavy traffic" regarding SQL Express ?

Maybe I just have the wrong impression, and the limitations listed don't amount to much ?

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hi Juan,

Juan T. Llibre wrote:

re:
> are you experimenting inconveniences?

None.

I was wondering, mainly, whether SQL Express differed from MSDE
...which wasn't designed for production use.

actually MSDE was... it is "limited" compared to the full blown wditions of the relative product(s), but both MSDE and SQLExpress ARE ready for production..

you only have to see if they are "enought" to target your specific requirements, if the built-in limitations can be handled or have to be mandatory satisifed..

To further the question :

Express will only bind to one CPU at a time, and it cannot run queries in parallel.

Express cannot use more than 1 GB of RAM at a time for queries and data pages.
SQL Server 2005 will handle many more concurrent queries than the Express version.

No one database in Express can be larger than 4 GB.

Data mining, Data Transformation Services (DTS)

yep... that's true

and reporting functions are not available for SQL Express.

false ... the SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services provides (local server only) Reporting features as well

Other functions not available in Express include clustering/mirroring,

yep

full-text indexing/searching, indexed views, partitioned views

false, the very same edition with Advanced Services supports full text...

indexed views are "supported" as the engine will not throw exception, but the advanced optimizations on them will be not "used" by the optimizer...

SQLMail, and SQL Agent.

yep, but you can easely write a "kind of" replacement for Mail via simple SMTP CLR based procedure to send mail like my free and simple project, amDbobj ..

as regard SQL Agent, normal "stuffs" can be scheduled via native AT/SCHTASKS operating system scheduler, but, obviously, full blown jobs are often not completely transferrable to this kind of solution.. or you can write your own scheduler, like other devs already did

I.O.W., although it will work fine for small traffic websites,
I would have thought it isn't designed for heavy-duty production websites.

Maybe we need to distinguish between
"light traffic" and "heavy traffic" regarding SQL Express ?

Maybe I just have the wrong impression, and the limitations listed don't amount to much ?

it all dependes on the "final needs" and budget ..

I often am very satisfied with SQLExpress, but when the customer requires more "power", it's then very easy to just upgrade to the Standard edition..

regards

|||Thank you very much for your reply, Andrea.

I now have a clearer view.