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One of our customer is on SQL express 2012 R2 for last couple of years and their database has grown to 1 GB. At any given time they have around 15 or more workstations connect to this database. They have a dedicated 2008 server for this database. Sometimes I could see some issues with the slow response but most of the time it is just ok. I cannot tell if suggesting standard SQL would improve the performance? Or it would be a waste of money? Can anybody suggest the parameters to check before I can make this decision?

In the task manager there are 2 sqlservr.exe processes and both of them are using 0% CPU but one of the process is using 2.2 GB of memory and the other is using 68 MB of memory.

Am I already pushing the envelope too far?

Please advise.

Vijay Bansal
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  • Your question is on a very thin line between 'recommending a tool' and a good question. Please edit your question so it has actually something so say something useful about, for example: how do they use the system? Database size isn't the only measurement. – Patrick Hofman Mar 23 '15 at 15:31
  • Well, I just wanted to know if there is any standard recommendations on when to move from SQL Express to standard edition. I understand a better query can fix the slowness but what about the limit on the RAM, it is already reaching 2 GB. Won't that be a factor? – Vijay Bansal Mar 25 '15 at 20:30
  • The reason why a database shoudl be on a dedicated server is because by default it will increase the use of RAM until you run out unless you specify differently. This is normal behavior. see:http://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/47431/why-is-sql-server-consuming-more-server-memory – HLGEM Mar 26 '15 at 20:02

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This cannot be answered without knowing how the system is developed. The vast majority of slow issues I have run across in many years of datbase work have to do with inefficient code or missing indexes. Getting a higher version of the database won't fix either fo those two issues.

Your problem could also be caused by physical equipment that is reaching it's limit or by network issues.

You are not close the data storage capacity of SQL server express, so I would investigate other things first as SQL Server Standard edition is quite a bit more expensive.

Your best bet would be to get a good book on performance tuning and read it. There are hundreds of things that can cause slowness.

HLGEM
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  • I understand that a slow query can be optimized in a several ways but what about the number of connections to the database. Each connection would use some resources. What about RAM limits? As I know there is a limit on RAM but I see on the current setup that it is exceeding that limit. So I don't get it how would I check if it running slow because it already reached its limits or because the query was slow. – Vijay Bansal Mar 25 '15 at 20:35
  • That is why you need to read a book on performance tuning. It is complicated subject. – HLGEM Mar 25 '15 at 21:33
  • Ok, great suggestion! I will read the book but do you know when should anybody move from SQL Express to standard edition? If you don't then please don't just keep giving generic answers like read the book. You don't need to answer each and every question that comes your way and increase your score. – Vijay Bansal Mar 26 '15 at 19:28