Microsoft claim to fame : The TeraServer on The Web

I for one has been saying not to use SQL-Server for large databases - and do not recommend to run databases larger than 10 to 20GB on SQL-Server.

Now Microsoft has released SQL-Server 7.0 Enterprise - and to show that it can handle large databases they've created a 1.something terabyte database consisting of 170 million rows of satelite images. Great hey?

http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/

Well, not really.

A terabyte db with 170 million rows!? That's nothing. We have that many rows in a single 30GB table in an Oracle data warehouse. Size of the database DOES NOT give ANY indication as to how good performance of that database is. When it gets to size, the performance is dependant on hardware issues like the speed of disk i/o channels, search and read speed of the disk controller, etc.

What's that? SQL-Server users read ahead threads? So fucking what. Whether you're accessing 170 million rows that's 1 terabyte in size, or 170 million rows that 30GB in size, read ahead techniques do not make a difference when it comes to the size of the row. That's dependant on hardware and memory.

I get a response of less than 2 or 3 seconds pulling a single entity's rows from our 170 million row table.

The real issues are:
- how well does SQL-Server handle tables with a billion

   plus rows (real terabyte data warehousing)
- how well does SQL-Server handles additions to VLTB
  (a real data warehouse is -never- static)
- how well does it handle star schema implementations
  and the associated SQL queries
- how well does it handle indexing on VLTB and what type
  of indexing techniques does it support (e.g. bitmap   indexes)
- how well does it handle full table scans

• does it have parallel query support and how well is it implemented

So once again, Microsoft is trying to blow a lot of smoke up our asses with their marketing hype. Well, I for one wet fart in their faces. Their TeraServer DOES NOT prove anything.

Anyone wants to argue with me, please bring your lead pipe to comp.databases.oracle.server - that's where the Real Databasers (tm) hang out.

As always, IMHO.

regards,
Billy
PS. My opinion in flame bait format - so don't get on your high horses and please flame away. I would really like to know if SQL-Server will be able to handle a -real- terabyte database. Received on Wed Jul 08 1998 - 00:00:00 CDT