Best practices for SQL database configuration for SAM & NPM

jcmoffitt

We are currently working on a plan to upgrade our SAM and NPM products to the latest and greatest version.  We have SAM and NPM running on their own servers which point to our SQL server.  Our SQL server contains our SAM and NPM database instances.  We are in an enterprise environment.  We have been told that we can keep our DB instances on the same server OR we can chose to run a separate SQL server for each module.  That will require for us to purchase another SQL license. 

What are some of the advantages or disadvantages for keeping both SAM and NPM on a single SQL server or separating them?  We know that we are going to have to upgrade the NOS on each server as well as run SQL Enterprise 2016 or higher. 

mesverrum

So this is really a conversation about your underlying infrastructure more than its even a sql question really.

Benefits of keeping them on a single instance, less sql licensing required $$$, less admin overhead.
Downside is mostly around performance limits, but its more in theory than reality. A competent SQL admin can easily manage them on the same server (consider that most customers run SAM and NPM and often many other modules on a single instance anyway). Ideally you would want to make sure each db instance has its files on separate drives that don't end up competing for storage on the same set of disks, but you don't have to stand up a whole separate server to achieve that. SQL licensing is not cheap, you can buy a lot of performance tuning for that added cost.