Thread: Website Database size exceeding limit creating load on SQL Server 2005

Hi! I am an web programmer of a reputed organization.

Our web server has the following configuration -

Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
Windows 2003 Standard Edition
2GB RAM
2x160 GB SATA Hard Drive(s)

We have used Java Script, VB Script and ASP in our website coding. Our site uses CDonts and CDosys components to

send mails.

We are using SQL Server 2005 Express edition in the integrated server. It has limitation upto 4GB of database size.
We had approximately 60,000 records in a particular table and most of the queries in the website are running

through that particular table. The database size was exceeding its limit and it was creating load on SQL Server.

So, we were facing downtime of our website for several days. Our hosting provider was repeatedly telling us that

the database size was creating load on SQL Server and it was automatically restarting the server and that is the

reason for downtime.

As a temporary solution we deleted around 16000 old records for reducing load on SQL server. But now again we need

to add some 30000 of records in that particular table, so we are looking for some solution.

Our hosting provider is giving us the following solutions -
1) to upgrade our server configuration.
2) to install SQL Server 2005 Server Edition(licensed version) of unlimited size database.

The price quoted by our hosting provider is very expensive and the server maintenance charge along with the price

of SQL Server is too costly for us. So as an alternative solution we had asked our hosting provider to install SQL

Server 2008 Express edition which is freely downloaded from Microsoft site and which supports upto 10GB of database

size. But our hosting providers are not ready to support for the management of SQL Server 2008 as they don't have any expertise right now.
We are also approaching other hosting providers for the better solution. But for shifting our website to other
hosting providers lot of difficulties like data security, hacking, etc. we might face.

Can anyone tell us what actions should we take in this case?
Also can anyone tell me which edition of SQL Server should we use?

Thank you all in advance.

I think this is a good time to change your host. If they can't provide support for what you need, and you have outgrown them, you'll be better switching to somewhere else. There are hosts that even help you moving your site to their servers so that should be be an issue.

I don't think the server is the issue. The specifications seem good. The issue here is the software used. It has too many limitations I think. If you get new software to overcome this limitation, you will be looking at a quite a hefty price.

You are better off keeping the limitations or looking for a commercial host. I know many hosts including mine keeps their software up to date so these limitations are avoided.