I am running a couple of e-commerce sites on SQL Express on a
dedicated server celeron with 512mbytes of ram..The server has only 1
processor and is well below the maximium specs to run SQL Express.

From what I can gather as long as you are happy with the features SQL
Express provides the preformance should be the same as the full SQL
2005?

At the moment my sites at the absolute MAXIMUM will have 1000 - 2000
visitors per day. Are there going to be any bottlenecks along the way
that will cause my site to slow down due to SQL Express... Can I have
an unlimited amount of users on the site at one time.

I have noticed that occasionly when I am going through on my sql
express sites they slow down. If I load up MYSQL site on the same
server its quick as can be.

I would really love it if some one could demystify the limitations of
SQL Express for me in relation to what I want it to do.

Thanks in advance.

---

Request for Question Clarification by keystroke-ga on 28 Oct 2006 07:33 PDT

Hello aealden, 

The short answer to your query is that SQL Express is built for single
user desktop queries; if you want to use SQL Express you need to get
and use SQL Express with Advanced services. A brief comparison is
shown here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql/compare/default.aspx

Any questions, let me know.

--keystroke-ga

aealden,

If you are a novice-amateur web developer working on the personal
site... these are the only real limitations you need to worry about:

Number of CPUs:
- Express: 1
- Full: No limit

Ram:
- Express: 1 GB
- Full: OS Maximum

Maximum Database Size (MOST IMPORTANT):
- Express: 4GB
- Full: No limit

And then... there are extra bells and whistles for ENTERPRISE
applications... which i don't think you will need.  For the most
part.. i'd worry about the 4GB DB maximum.  If your ecommerce site
ever grows to more than 4GB worth of customer/order/item
information... you will run into problems, especially if you plan on
this thing growing.

If you aren't ready to shell out the money for SQL Server 2005 (full),
i'd look into the free stuff like MySQL.  The transition isn't too
hard... and it'll save you.

Good luck!

Concurrent workload governor (throttle): NO
Database size limitation: 4 GB
RAM support: 1GB
SMP support: 1
Merge Replication: YES (as a subscriber only)
Transactional Replication: YES (as a subscriber only)
Snapshot Replication: YES (as a subscriber only)
SQL Server Profiler: YES (only if another edition of SQL server 2005
is installed on the same machine as SQL server express and also see
that SQL server profiler is not installed with SQL server express)
Database Engine Tuning Wizard: NO
SQL Server Agent: NO
Active Directory registration: YES


Basics of Replication: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms165736.aspx
Describes the different replication components and replication types. 
 
Feature Comparison Between MSDE and SQL Server Express:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms165616.aspx
Compares the replication features available with SQL Server Express
and MSDE. Lists the SQL Server Express client and server replication
scenarios.
 
Replication Considerations (SQL Server Express:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms165686.aspx
Describes the replication considerations for SQL Server Express.
 
Let me know if it resolves ur queries or not

Thanks,
SB