Re: NEED HELP and GUIDANCE!

In article <c978d8cf.0406131603.34edddc9_at_posting.google.com>, dahct_at_yahoo.com says...
> I am not sure if sql 2000 is the best to get this done or perhaps
> oracle. I am currently trying this on mySQL with PHP but currently am
> lost in a forest of data. Any guidance suggestions will be greatly
> appreciated. I am pretty new to this so please be kind...

If your project is going be connected to a web server, then you are going to need to stick with something like MySQL - Both Oracle and MS SQL require licenses, MS SQL requires a CPU license for anything used by a web server to present data. A CPU license is about $4900 for MS SQL, I have no idea what Oracle licenses run today.

If this is a class project, that won't hit the web for anyone but yourself, then you can use the 120 Day eval version without limitation.

Now, to answer your question, based on the small size of your database, I would say that ANY of the databases you've mentioned should be more than enough to handle it.

Things to consider when building a database:

1. Database and web server belong on different machines
2. The OS is installed on one set of drives, the database log files on another set that is mirrored, and the data files are installed on yet another set of drives configured as RAID 5 or RAID 0+1. For personal use a single drive with multiple volumes will also do, but the multi-drive methods is the best option.
3. Size your database ahead of time - meaning if you think it's going to need 1GB of space, go ahead and make it 1GB, saves grow time later.
4. Make sure that you build proper indexes and clustered indexes
5. Make sure that you don't over-normalize the database, but make sure it's easy to expand your tables.
6. Memory - make sure you have enough, how much is enough, well, as much as the OS can handle :) In most cases, based on what you seem to be building, if your testing platform has 1GB of RAM you should be in good shape. If you are testing and running the web server and database server on the same machine, make sure (for MS SQL) that you limit the SQL Server to 65% of the memory - this saves room for the OS and IIS/PHP so that the SQL Server doesn't have to spend time releasing memory to the system.

To handle several hundred users, at the same time, you should consider a small Dual CPU server with 3GB of RAM for the database and another small Dual CPU server with 2GB of RAM for the web server. If you don't have funding, the ASUS PC-DL Deluxe motherboard allows Dual Xeon CPU's, up to 4GB of RAM, and lets you use up to 6 IDE (4 SATA) devices. You could go cheap and buy 4 120GB SATA drives and use the PC-DL Onboard RAID controller to build one (4 drive) RAID 5 array, and then partition it for OS, LOGS, DATA.

One other thing, if you are using a MS platform for the web server, don't install your web site on the "C" drive, make sure that you have a "D" drive and install your site there - to many people fail to secure their systems and it's a lot easier to secure if you have the web site on the NON-OS drives.

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