I’m curious what the minimum supported SQL version is for V5?
I know that Server 2016 has better support for JSON and that would be my choice for SQL Express, but getting into the expense of running SQL Server Standard, etc… I already have licenses for earlier versions such as 2008 R2.
Am I safe to use SQL Express without a concern of exceeding the limits? It appears a 10GB database with a 1GB memory limit is imposed on the Express version.
Has anyone outgrown their SQL Express database? If I migrated from Express to another version later, I’d have some major expenses.
I’m also wondering if there would be any performance hits on only having 1GB of memory with multiple terminals accessing the database.
I have run and upgraded from 2008 all the way to 2016 without issue.
The JSON functions in 2016 are important to me, as they have allowed for building better SQL Reports.
My DB is currently ~850 MB after running for 5 years.
The Instance also hosts several other Databases for things like Websites.
Everything runs on on a Core i3-4xxx with 8 GB RAM and 250 GB SSD. No performance issues that I have noticed.
Someone else having more Terminals would need to speak to performance aspects since I only run 2 Terminals, but I doubt that would cause any issues (have not heard of any).
I am not aware of the limits on Express that you are citing. Do you have reference?
The limits are listed on Microsoft’s website and he is correct about them but it would really take a lot to reach that limit. It can always be upgraded to a licensed version if you were to hit the limit.
It sounds like I would be safe with Express for the long term. If I stayed with the 2016 version, by the time I needed to expand that version would be reasonably priced in the second hand market if it’s not completely locked down by that time.
I still like being able to purchase authentic paper licenses and CAL’s for some items that are others people’s leftovers from an upgrade.
