
	Home > Ask the SQL Server Experts > Archive: Performance Tuning Questions & Answers > Performance tuning for SQL Server 2005 and Exchange running on SBS

Ask The SQL Server Expert: Questions & Answers

EMAIL THIS

Performance tuning for SQL Server 2005 and Exchange running on SBS

EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Denny Cherry

		Pose a Question

		Other SQL Server Categories

		Meet all SQL Server Experts
		Become an Expert for this site

Digg This!

StumbleUpon

Del.icio.us

QUESTION POSED ON: 11 March 2008
I'm interested in your thoughts on performance tuning multiple instances of SQL Server 2005 running on Windows 2003 Small Business Server (SBS).

I have taken over development of an Access 2003 Project against SQL Server 2005 that is having serious performance issues. Upon investigation I discovered the SQL Server is configured to run Exchange Server, File & Print Services and five instances of SQL Server on a HP server with two disks and 2 GB of RAM.

I think the SQL Server instances are causing the problems; each instance takes about 1.7 GB of virtual memory. The instances being run are the following:

Access / Office Application
Backup Exec
Windows Update Service
SharePoint
SMS montitoring

I noticed when the Access Application is running slowly, the free CPU usage is around 90%. I think the SQL Server instances are I/O bound so that the context switches are causing the performance problems.

I plan to increase RAM and the number of disks. But I'm also interested in reducing the number of SQL Server 2005 instances by turning off several services and hopefully sharing SQL Server instances for applications like Backup Windows Update and SMS Services.

Digg This!

StumbleUpon

Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT

	Microsoft SQL Server Performance Monitoring and Tuning
	Performance implications of transaction log autogrowth in SQL Server
	The short course on how SQL Server really works
	Determining the source of full transaction logs in SQL Server
	Improving SQL Server full-text search performance
	New GROUP BY option provides better data control in SQL Server 2008
	Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor primer
	Examining data files when SQL Server tempdb is full
	Testing transaction log autogrowth behavior in SQL Server
	Meeting business needs with SQL Server full-text search
	Using dynamic management views to improve SQL Server index effectiveness

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Yukon)

SQL Server Reporting Services Fast Guide

SQL Server Service Broker Tutorial and Reference Guide

Tips for tuning SQL Server 2005 to improve reporting performance

SQL Server consolidation: Why it's an optimization technique

Parent-child dimensions in SQL Server 2005 with Analysis Services MDX

Enforcing data integrity in a SQL Server database

SSIS error message due to installation problem on SQL Server 2005

Should you upgrade to SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008?

Basics for working with DATETIME and SMALLDATETIME in SQL Server 2005

How to configure Database Mail in SQL Server 2005 to send mail

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) Research

SQL Server Interoperability

Utilize SSAS for data predictions and classification using Excel

How to create a SQL Server linked server to DB2

Export SQL Server data to an Excel file using SSIS and Visual Studio

Custom VB.Net scripting in SQL Server Integration Services

Can SQL Server 2000 work on Windows 2003 platform?

Query to search text in old DTS packages in SQL Server?

Handle slowly changing dimensions with SSIS 2005 wizard

Run DTS packages within SQL Server Integration Services

SQL Server Integration Services how-to

Compatibility of SQL Server 2005 and 2000 coexisting

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS

Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary

contiguity (SearchSQLServer.com)

contiguous (SearchSQLServer.com)

drilldown (SearchSQLServer.com)

hashing (SearchSQLServer.com)

hybrid online analytical processing (SearchSQLServer.com)

RELATED RESOURCES

2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems

Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts

Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

It is highly recommended that you do not host SQL Server and Exchange Server on the same server. Both Exchange Server and SQL Server will want to take all the RAM, as well as both being very disk intensive (Exchange Server is a JET database so it's performing basic database operations under the hood).

Reducing the number of SQL Server instances will definitely help performance. There isn't really any reason that all these applications couldn't use a single database instance. The upside to this will be that they can all share a single pool of RAM. The downside is you can't specify how much RAM each one uses.

If I was the administrator on this box, I'd pull all the SQL Server databases into a single instance of SQL Server, and if possible move that instance to another server. With everything that this server is doing it's very possible that the two disk drives are killing the system. Without having performance monitor data handy, I can't dig into the system specifically, but those would be two excellent places to start.

Because Exchange Server is on there, you'll want to limit your SQL Server databases to about 768 MB of RAM total. This way Exchange Server can have some RAM, as well as the operating system.

Search and Browse the Expert Answer Center
Search and browse more than 25,000 question and answer pairs from more than 250 TechTarget industry experts.

Browse our Expert Advice
Operating Systems IT Management Networking Database	Security Servers and Storage Applications and Development Career Center

SQL Solutions - SQL Database Design

SEARCH

TechTarget provides technology professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective purchase decisions and managing their organizations' technology projects - with its network of technology-specific websites, events and online magazines.


TechTarget Corporate Web Site \| Media Kits \| Site Map All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2005 - 2009, TechTarget \| Read our Privacy Policy