Installing SQL Server Express 2008 and IIS on same machine

Question

There are a couple of questions on SO regarding the pros and (mostly) cons of having SQL Server and IIS running on the same machine:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/274846/should-sql-server-be-on-the-same-machine-as-your-iis-installation

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1401834/when-can-i-host-iis-and-sql-server-on-the-same-machine

These questions seem geared towards heavy-duty installations though and most of the concerns involve the memory demands of both servers.

However, if I am installing SQL Server Express, which can only utilise 1GB RAM, on a box with 2GB RAM then I presume memory will not be an issue, as SQL Server will gobble up the 1GB it can leaving the rest of the memory for IIS and other processes?

I appreciate the other concerns over CPU cycles, security & maintenance remain, but as this would be for an internal production monitoring system which will have a maximum of about 20 concurrent connections, these will not be a major concern.

Answer 1

I think it is a bad design to have both on the same machine for production environments. On my laptop I have both, but that is purely for development.

With 2GB of RAM you may find that the 1GB that SQL Server Express uses will become a problem if IIS and any other process begins to grow.

You didn't mention which OS, but if you have another database server that is beefier, then just put Sql Server Express there, that way you can backup one machine to protect from disasters.

Answer 2

Keep in mind that SQL Server Express can use only 1 CPU (though no limitations on number of cores) and maximum database size of 4 Gb (which can be an issue for your monitoring system which can collect a lot of data I guess).

Besides that I would advice keeping IIS data (applications) and database(s) on different physical drives - this will help in case you experience a considerable load.

Answer 3

At a previous employer, we had Express + IIS running on a 3.2 dual core, with 2 GB RAM. Used for demo purposes over the net, no problem. If you will never expect more a 20 conns, and only minimal traffic, there is no reason to splash out on a server. [edit] This was on XP sp3. IIS 5.1.