Install Sharepoint on a server with other databases already on it?

Question

We have a DB server with a couple web app db's on there (don't get a ton of traffic). We'd like to make use of the server and allow it to be the DB server for sharepoint. I'm assuming it's not good practice and that sharepoint should have it's own exclusive db server. Am I right in that conclusion, or is it alright if we put the database on a server that already hosts other databases.

Answer 1

You can install SharePoint on an existing DB server, sure. Unless your environment is going to be huge, I don't see why you would give it its own DB server. It will use an embedded SQL Server instance if you want, but you'll get better performance if you have the full-blown version. We're running a few SharePoint apps on our DB server with a number of other applications.

Answer 2

Be careful with the SQL Server collation. I think SharePoint requires a particular setting for this. See http://www.moss2007.be/blogs/vandest/archive/2007/07/24/sharepoint-2007-and-sql-server-collation-latin1%5Fgeneral%5Fci%5Fas%5Fks%5Fws.aspx for one reference.

Answer 3

The way in which I solve this is to install a second SQL Server instance dedicated to SharePoint, as SharePoint likes to have a lot of control over the database and spews all sorts of stuff such as logins, etc. across the instance, which you really want to separate from your standard line of business instance.

The added bonus is multiple SQL Server instances on the same physical machine are included in your licence.

Answer 4

Prior to centralizing our environment we had many Sharepoint sites located on servers with existing applications. I'm not a fan of adding an additional named instance as this increases the administrative overhead for the DBA. You have to know how much use you expect of your Sharepoint instance then measure the resource utilization of your existing applications balance it from there.