Hi.
We have one vps server, at the moment, and we need to run both test and prod web applications on it. Is it good idea to have one sql instance for production databases and another one for test databases?
Thank you.
+3
A:
I would reckon it's better to have two completely separate instances, yes. At the very least, it would be the first step to hopefully hosting each environment on a different server in the future!
A nice advantage of having completely separate server instances is that it can help avoid (but not prevent, of course) accidentally making mistakes on Production when you think that you're in Test. Since there's that extra step involved of having to explicitly connect to the Production instance hopefully it puts you into the right cautious frame of mind when making changes.
Another possible advantage can be for software that expects databases called particular names, or has accounts with particular names, that may be hard or impossible to change. Having two instances makes it easier for this kind of obstinate software to do its thing rather than having two different environment installations possibly clobbering each other's settings.
Coxy
2010-07-13 08:36:21