October 4, 2007 at 11:02 am
I work for a non-profit and a window of opportunity to obtain a laptop has finally opened up! 😀
I will probably be using the Developer edition to do some system testing, migration, and programming.
From personal experience can anyone give me suggested hardware requirements for this type of situation. I am thinking that I probably need at least a 2 ghz processor (would dual-core make a difference) with 2 gb of ram. I am also surmising that the HD should be at least 60 g.
Any other suggestions?
PS - Just as a guide, my organization exclusively uses Dell computers so my options are the Latitude, Inspiron, or Precision models.
October 9, 2007 at 8:35 am
Dual core is worth the extra money. 2 gig's should be fine, but get the biggest hard drive you can. 60 gig fills up pretty fast. For when you use the laptop on your desktop, scrounge up a 17" or larger flat panel for second display. Last thing I suggest is an inexpensive external drive (300gb for under $100 at Best Buy, Office Max, Circuit City, newegg.com) that stays on your desk for backup.
Steve
October 9, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Tend to agree with what Steven posted. Go Dual-core and 2GB. Big HDD or if not, an external for backing up. Decent sized USB ones are $100-150.
October 9, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Let me ask another question. The goal of my development work is to migrate an antiquated database from Access 2000 to SQL Server 2005 (the tables need to be re-designed and normalized). I also plan on building a new front end using Visual Studio. There are approximately 12 users that are in the database on a "part-time" basis. The database is used to store patient medical records for cancer research. Data is entered by support staff and research nurses and later used by research physicians for research papers. The Access back end database is about 20 MB at the present time and is slowly growing.
My question is would it be possible to run SQL Server on a desktop/laptop versus a server. I am trying to find the most cost effective way to implement SQL Server (standard edition) within this group.
I know this question may sound silly but I am relatively new to the whole client-server architecture and what the capabilities of SQL Server are in this arena.
Thanks!
October 9, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Go for more RAM. Dual core is just fine but definitely go for more RAM - that is assuming you can run a 64-bit O/S or configure the O/S to take advantage of the additional RAM.
October 10, 2007 at 7:24 am
Definately go for the dual core. As for memory, 2GB should suffice on the laptop. If you're lucky enough to get 4GB, go for it, as you also indicate that you're going to be running Visual Studio for the development work. As for disk, you want the largest, and fastest (7200rpm) drive that will fit into the laptop.
I'm using a ThinkPad R60 (1GB RAM, dual core, 160GB 7200 RPM HDD) for my personal machine that has SQL Server 2005, Oracle, etc. on it. Runs just fine.
SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition will work just fine for your development. All of our developers are working with XP Pro on desktops (2GB RAM) and laptops (1GB RAM) doing full .Net development with web tier and local SQL Server 2005 databases.
Definately get an external HDD to backup and save all of your development work. One note: if you can get a Firewire drive (they usually also support USB) go for it. Firewire, although a little bit slower than USB in raw speed, is much faster in throughput than USB. It operates much like a local drive vs. going through the USB stack and/or getting time sliced.
As for running this app on a laptop/desktop, I'd say that the laptop is totally off mark. It really depends upon the number of end-users accessing the application and/or the importance of the database/application. So a low-budget desktop box running one of the lower-end SQL Server editions should work. See SQL Server 2005 Editions at: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/default.mspx and
SQL Server system requirements at: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/sysreqs/default.mspx
October 10, 2007 at 8:00 am
Be careful with developing apps with developer edition. MS was very tricky there, since it's got all options turned ON (it's essentially a clone of enterprise edition). It would be very easy to develop something using features you will NOT have in the "production edition", especially if you plan on running this on a souped-up workstation. (I think the strategy was to get you to do just that, in the hopes that you would spend for the "better version" after your app is fully built).
If you plan on running the app on a souped-up workstation, and are planning on skimping on SQL licensing - you may be better off building the app using SQLExpress as your dev platform. At least you can be sure it will run anywhere else, whatever your production looks like.
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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 10, 2007 at 8:05 am
You can run the express edition on a laptop/desktop. But I strongly discourage this.
First. Laptops move and BREAK!
Second. Since you can't install a second drive in a laptop, raid isn't an option.
So if you must go with Express Edition use a desktop at least. use a Mirrored drive configuration (raid 1 or 10)
Now if you need standard edition this must be installed on a server based O/S.
October 10, 2007 at 8:06 am
I would recommend you look at the new Vostro 1700 model. I am LOVING mine - Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 hard drives, 4GB RAM and an awesome monitor!
Best,
Kevin G. Boles
SQL Server Consultant
SQL MVP 2007-2012
TheSQLGuru on googles mail service
October 10, 2007 at 8:16 am
TheSQLGuru (10/10/2007)
I would recommend you look at the new Vostro 1700 model. I am LOVING mine - Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 hard drives, 4GB RAM and an awesome monitor!
Figures.. 🙁 Ok. You can install a second drive in a laptop.
October 10, 2007 at 9:19 am
I am currently running developer edition on a Latitude D820 - 2GB RAM - 2.0 GHz Dual Core Processor - 80GB HD.
I am developing a 20GB database on it and an Analysis Services database. The start up is a bit slow (around 5 minutes), but once it is up and running it works well. I can have SQL Management Studio and Visual Studio running with all my other applications with no slowdowns until I run mass updates in SQL.
As for your production machine, plan on getting a server that you can back up and restore. Make sure it has some fault tolerance so you can lose a disk and keep on going. I run a Dell PowerEdge 700 with Small Business Server 2003 Pro, which has SQL 2005 on it, for my production database.
October 10, 2007 at 10:02 am
Definitely be aware of the Standard v Enterprise/Developer features, but you should be able to develop on your laptop.
I'd recommend weekly, if not daily builds that get dropped somewhere and run against a real server to see if things are working. At least a 20-30 minute gut check to be sure it will deploy smoothly.
Plus you'll work out your deployment process 🙂
October 10, 2007 at 11:45 am
I thank everyone for your insightful replies. It seems like development will not be an issue with a laptop that has at least 2 gb of RAM and I will definitely look into the Dell Vestro (and 4 gb of RAM). I am currently using Express on my work machine and Developer on my personal laptop.
Now let's talk production. My boss was able to obtain the Standard edition as a gift for our small department. Again, as a non-profit with limited financial resources, what is the bare minimum needed for a server to support a group of around 15 people? How much should we expect to spend? Our financial constraints is the reason why I am wondering if it is prudent to just use SQL Server Express or build a server to fit the needs of our small group.
The database is far from being ready for production but what I need is ammunition to pitch the absolute necessity of purchasing a server for our department. (The other option that we have is using an instance or two of the SQL Server 2000 server database run by the division. My boss does not like that idea).
Once again, the database will be used to house cancer research data. We never have more than 5 people using the database at one time and the uses are for report generation and data entry.
Your expertise is greatly appreciated!
October 10, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I would decide first what your budget is. Then hit eBay or some other used-equipment seller and get what you can for your budget. A LOT depends on how much data you intend to store and what your allowable time to run reports is. Could be that a single cpu 2GB RAM single hard drive box will be sufficient. Or it could be that you really need a 4CPU box with 8GB ram and 10 hard drives. BTW, assuming you have more than 2GB of data, the amount of RAM and the NUMBER of hard drives are the two most important things to pay for.
Best,
Kevin G. Boles
SQL Server Consultant
SQL MVP 2007-2012
TheSQLGuru on googles mail service
October 10, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Thanks! It took 7 years for this database to reach 35 MB so it probably won't approach 2 gb for another few years. (It's growing at a slightly faster rate than it has in the past). My main concern is having a location where the data will be accessible for data entry, both in house and remote in the future (after .NET connectivity is added), and the ability to generate reports on this data without major system lags. (M.D.s tend to like their data ASAP). Of course, back-up and recovery are also must-haves.
I am hoping that these minimal requirements will equate to a minimal server need. One action I may take is to see if the divisional IT group has an old server that they might like to donate.
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