October 1, 2007 at 2:50 am
Hi,
We are going to acquire a license of the SQL Server 2005 and have doubts in relation to the type of license that we needed: Standard or Enterprise.
At the moment we have installed the SQL Server 2000 Enterprise, since we have the SQL Server installed in cluster of two nodes and in the Standard version of the SQL Server 2000 it was not including the support of cluster.
In the Standard version of the SQL Server 2005 that is included, therefore we do not know if this version is sufficient to us. We have a series of doubts, since in a Web of comparative of the different versions (http://www.microsoft.com/spain/sql/productinfo/features/compare-features.mspx), it indicates that in the standard version they are not including the following characteristics of high availability among others:
* Online Restore
* Online Indexing
* Fast recovery
We made backups and restorations of data bases online.
This would not be possible with the standard version?
Also we used “Full Text Catalogs” that is indexed automatically with the data base online.
I do not understand if these functionalities would not be supported by the Standard version of the SQL Server 2005.
Somebody could expose the main differences between the versions Standard and Enterprise of SQL Server 2005?
Thank you very much,
Eva Janakieff
October 2, 2007 at 8:48 am
I can't claim to give you a comprehensive run-down of the differences. That being said - my understanding of the ONLINE restore and indexing functionality is that the objects remain available during the restore and index.
in other words - when you index a table - in standard there is a window of time during which the table is locked/unavailable, but not in enterprise. Similarly - if you restoring part of a database - it stays available DURING the restore. In standard, even though it will state online - it's locked and not available for use during the process.
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
October 16, 2007 at 9:50 am
Hi Eva,
To answer your questions,
1) Backups are online operations, whether or not you are using Standard vs. Enterprise. As for restoring a database, when you do page level or file-level restores, you can leave the rest of the database online in enterprise edition. You cannot access a database in the middle of a restore operation of a whole database in any version. I would read books online as there are some caveats to this feature...
2) FT Indexing is a different functionality than table indexes. For FT indexes, master merges and index adds will continue to be automatic, regardless of Standard vs. Enterprise.
3) Of the differences you mentioned, Matt nailed one of them. Faster recovery times will allow you to access a recovering database while it is undo mode. Otherwise, you wait until that recovery phase is done to access a database.
Look at this URL for a better breakout of the differences:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143761.aspx
Thanks,
Eric
October 27, 2007 at 11:42 pm
[font="Courier New"]My advice is not to go for SQL server 2005, its better to go for SQL server 2008 which will be released coming Feb 2008. Microsoft has announced that there is no price hike for 2008, hence its better to wait till then.
Refer the below link for more.
[/font]
Regards..Vidhya Sagar
SQL-Articles
October 29, 2007 at 4:21 am
I think saying SQL 2008 will be released in Feb 2008 is speculative, in spite of what has been announced by MS.
If the next CTP of SQL Server 2008 (due later this year) does not have full compatibility for Windows 2008 RTM and Visual Studio 2008 RTM, or if MS says there is significant functionality to still add, I would expect to see another SQL CTP between CTP 5 and SQL 2008 RTM. There simply is not time for Microsoft to prepare 2 CTPs and the RTM version between now and Feb 2008.
My speculation is that SQL 2008 will be out before the PASS conference in September 2008 in Seattle, but only by a few weeks.
Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.
When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara
October 29, 2007 at 5:06 am
To answer your questions the best I can:
As stated above, backups in any version of SQL Server are all online.
Restores, technically, are not online except in the case of Page level, file level or other piecemeal restores. And while file restores are available in Standard edition, they are not available as an Online restore tool. I think page level restores are only available in Enterprise. The caveat to Online Restores is that the primary file has to be up and available during the restore. If you're restoring the primary data file, then the restore probably won't be an Online Restore.
Online Indexing is only available in Enterprise Edition. The only thing it gives you is rebuilding or altering indexes while still allowing queries and data modifications to be run against the tables in question. Otherwise, in Standard (just like in all SQL 2000 versions) the table will be exclusively locked during an index operation, unavailable for reads or writes. The key here being that SQL Server makes a complete "snapshot" (or copy) of the table prior to Index operations so that the queries and modifications run against the copy while the Index operations occur against the main table. Once the Indexing operation is done, modifications are applied against the main table and the copy is dropped. So if you don't have enough hard drive space for a duplicate table, you can't use Online Index operations anyway.
Full Text catalogs & indexes are available with both SQL Server Standard & Enterprise. So you should have no trouble there. Again, Full Text requires more hard drive space because the actual FT catalog & indexes are stored off the database and in the actual file system space.
The main differences between the two versions is this:
Standard supports only 4 processors, Enterprise supports unlimited processors.
Enterprise can do horizontal partitioning (a plus if you have a huge database).
Failover clustering -- Standard only supports 2 nodes (or servers) while Enterprise supports ... a lot. I don't know if Enterprise has a cluster node limit. I don't think it does.
Lastly, Oracle replication only works with Enterprise.
And while both Standard and Enterprise can do Database Mirroring, Notification Services and have several tools available in SSMS, I believe Standard is more "crippled" in some of the options it has available. I could be wrong (we use Enterprise, so I can't check the Standard toolset), but I think Enterprise is simply more robust and capable. Of course, it has to be considering the size environment it's scaled for.
The main point is, if you don't have a super huge environment, don't need clustering beyond 2 nodes, don't need more than 4 processors and don't need data partioning, you might as well stick to Standard. It's cheaper and can do almost everything else that Enterprise can do.
Don't use online restores or indexing as your only reason for "We need Enterprise". Include them with your requirements, but if you don't need more than 4 processors or more than 2 cluster nodes or data partitioning, stick with Standard. If you do need one of the other features, though, then add the online stuff to your list of reasons for spending the money.
Does that help?
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