Community
- Command Central
- MVP Program
- Monthly Mission
- Blogs
- Groups
- Events
- Media Vault
Products
- Observability
- Network Management
- Application Management
- IT Security
- IT Service Management
- System Management
- Database Management
Content Exchange
- SolarWinds Platform
- Server & Application Monitor
- Database Performance Analyzer
- Server Configuration Monitor
- Network Performance Monitor
- Network Configuration Manager
- SQL Sentry
- Web Help Desk
Free Tools & Trials

Database Size

We're considering purchasing the SLX version of NPM. If we wanted to monitor about 350 devices (mostly routers and switches), would the version of MS SQL server that is included with Orion be too small? Should I plan on purchasing a larger version of that product?

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

All comments

jonchill

I all depends on how frequently you poll and gather stats and how long you keep your stats for, as this will determins the size of the DB.

We currently monitor 296 nodes and our DB size is 7gig, going with the SLX version will give you the flexibility to add as many nodes as you want to Orion without having to worry about whether the DB is close to the 2 gig threshold. We originally started monitoring around 130 devices but we knew that we would be adding more as time went on.

HTH

Jon

IT Infrastructure Manager
Pilgrim Hospital
UK

jneiberger

I thought that the DB that comes with Orion had a limit of 2 GB? The way you phrased your reply makes it sound as if the DB that comes with the SLX version has a larger capacity. Is that true?

gbrance

You need to purchase SQL Server then for database you are just limited by the size of your HD. The version that comes with Orion is the desktop version that is limited to 2GB. It really doesn't matter which version of Orion you purchase. It just matters what version of SQL server you use.

GB

chris.conway

Hi jneiberger,

The DB that comes with Orion is MSDE which as you said is limited to 2GB in size. I would advise you to purchase a full copy of SQL for use with Orion.

DannyMc

quote:Originally posted by jneiberger

We're considering purchasing the SLX version of NPM. If we wanted to monitor about 350 devices (mostly routers and switches), would the version of MS SQL server that is included with Orion be too small? Should I plan on purchasing a larger version of that product?

I have a 500 element license and was running the MSDE. I had DB maintenance set at the default. After a year I was surprised to see that I was only around 850 meg. Thought it would have been higher.

I turned on syslog for all my devices. After 12 hours of Pix reporting my MSDE came to a screaching halt.

Needless to say I am now running SQL Server.

I recommend going with the SQL server and being done with it!

Watch your disk. Not sure how you plan to backup your databases but I am using more disk space for backups than for the actual database.

I'm running a WAY under utilized Dell 2850 dual 3.4's and 4 gig of RAM.

jneiberger

We're going to buy exactly the same server. It's going to have 2x146 GB storage on it. That should last for a while.

jkeberle

depending upon the servers ability, more smaller faster scsi drives in a raid would be better off for the SQL server than just 2 big drives. Our SQL data store is a LUN in our SAN, only 70 gigs in size but spans 14 physical drives.

Network_Guru

I have to agree with JKeberle,

My server has 3 - 36Gb SCSI disks setup in Raid5 for the SQL DB, and the disk queue length is horrendous.
Generally anything over 2 means you are maxing out the disk queue.
When running a report it peaks between 80 & 100 while the report is running.
This is the single biggest bottleneck on the server running the Orion DB.

I found these guidelines here:

msdn.microsoft.com/.../default.asp

quote:
It is best to concentrate on disk queuing versus actual I/O per disk because, after all, why worry about I/O if it is not causing a problem? Windows can't see the number for physical drives in a RAID array, so to assess disk queuing per physical disk accurately, it is important to divide the Disk Queue Length by the number of physical drives participating in the hardware RAID disk array that contains the logical drive being observed. Keep this number under 2 for hard drives containing SQL Server files.

-=Cheers=-
NG

FormerMember

One other option as far as the size limit of MSDE. I installed SQL 2005 Express on our Orion server, and it seems to be running very well. This is basically the new version of MSDE, although it has a 4gb database limit instead of a 2gb.