Should I upgrade Access 2000?

From my experience with Access and web applications performance goes down fast once you get past around 20-30 concurrent users, although it depends how data intensive your pages are.

If you're planning on doing a serious data driven site, then I would definitely recommend upgrading. As for cost it really depends on the host, but on average it can be between $10-$30 more per month than using Access.

Plus once you start using SQL you can fool your friend's into thinking you're a DBA!

Quote: Originally posted by Peter J. Boettcher
Plus once you start using SQL you can fool your friend's into thinking you're a DBA!

Ermm....K what the hell is a DBA?? Is it a secret society of SQL users!

When you say 20-30 concurrent users do you mean 20-30 users accessing the database at the same time? If this is the case, its fairly unlikely to happen on my site as the users submits a query and the result is usually returned in 3-5 seconds. Am I wrong in assuming that once the data is retrieved, that user is no longer accessing the database? If this is not the case then I can't see 20-30 people all making a query at the same time within that 3-5 second time span or my site would be serving in the region of 1.5 million page views a month!!! I wish...

As for the cost element, my host would charge $5/month for a small SQL database (<5MB) but I am more interested in how much the actual software would set me back?

In addition I have heard that some ColdFusion queries do not work the same way with Access as they do with SQL...Correct or not??

Sorry for all the questions Peter but I am a forward thinking type of bloke and I don't want to get caught with my pants down....or site for that matter!!

DBA = Database Administrator, although they like to refer to themselves as GOD

When I said 20-30 concurrent connections I meant connections that were interacting with the database in some way, not just vistors to your site in general. It might sound like a lot, but remember, in the web environment a crafty user can simulate unlimited connections, so if I wanted to bring down certain areas of your site all I would have to do is simulate 20-30 users and Access barfs. (Not trying to give anyone any ideas!!) This would be a lot harder to do against an SQL site which pools connections and has a much higher user threshold.

The actual cost is around $2,000 (US) for the standard edition with a 5 user license. I don't remember the Enterprise edition pricing, but it's a lot more. The 5 user license only gives you 5 connections so you'll want to go for the Per Processor license which gives you unlimited connections, but it costs $5000 (US) per processor.

I don't have to much experience with CF, but I have heard the same.

If you're happy with your site's performance and don't plan on dramtically increasing traffic, then you're probably safe with Access. Just remember, that query that takes 3-5 seconds in Access would probably take less then 1 second on SQL

Quote: Originally posted by Peter J. Boettcher

The actual cost is around $2,000 (US) for the standard edition with a 5 user license. I don't remember the Enterprise edition pricing, but it's a lot more. The 5 user license only gives you 5 connections so you'll want to go for the Per Processor license which gives you unlimited connections, but it costs $5000 (US) per processor.

Can you lend me $10 to get started Peter!! My God I'm gonna have to strat a charity just to buy the darn thing!

Would MySQL provide an alternative or am I getting off the beaten track?

You don't have to buy SQL Server if you're using it on your host's server. All you need is Enterprise Manager which you can find for free by getting a demo of SQL.

MySQL is a viable alternative, especially if you're on a non-windows server. It doesn't have the power of Microsoft SQL, but you can't beat the price.

I might be missing something here but:
a) where do the tables, queries, etc go - Enterprise manger?
b) does this mean I will be unable to test my database on my local machine unless I have SQL server?

Sorry to be thick but SQL is a whole new ball game to me!!

a) Enterprise Manager is just a GUI client tool that connects to remote M$ SQL servers.

b) No, you don't NEED to run a local SQL server. You can have your scripts connect to remote SQL servers.

k,

So my database is stored on my hosts server right? So where can I download Enterprise Manager? I've searched Mico$ofts site but to no avail. It doesn't even pointyou in the right direction to upgrade from access 2000!!

Give it to me straight...Am I worrying about nothing or should I really retrain my brain (and site) to work with SQL server?

You don't have to use Enterprise Manager but it will save you having to write queries that you could do in Enterprise Manager with one click. To get Enterprise Manager just apply for the demo SQL Server 2000 CD (I don't think you can download it anywhere), then install only the client tools. Don't worry it doesn't expire.

Remember this is a big step up from Access, and the learning curve is steep, but if you're committed to it then you should be fine.

Well If ound the demo and you can download it here if you have about 24 hours spare as its a 340 MB file!!! I was gonna order the CD but I'm a tight git and wont pay for shipping on something I can get for free! I think I'll download it over the next week or so (GoZilla is a wonderful toy) and burn it onto a CD myself..

Thanx for all your help Peter, I'll have a play about and come back to you if I get stuck!

Cheers

Oh dear, major problem....A trial version is not avaliable for Win 98...darn, back to the drawing board

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Originally posted by Peter J. Boettcher

The actual cost is around $2,000 (US) for the standard edition with a 5 user license. I don't remember the Enterprise edition pricing, but it's a lot more. The 5 user license only gives you 5 connections so you'll want to go for the Per Processor license which gives you unlimited connections, but it costs $5000 (US) per processor.

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I paid $1600 for SQL Server2000 which includes OLAP extensions. Your whole Internet connection is counted as a single user under IIS and you still have 4 more.

If your site is very small perhaps Access or MySQL is the answer. If you see this as a 36 month investment. It costs less $50 a month to use a world class database. I don't know the price of Oracle or DB2 but I expect that when viewed over a three year period that the cost is moderate.

Web connections (IIS) do not count as one connection (license), if you have a site that averages around 10 concurrent users, then you will have to get 10 licenses. For large sites with hundreds of concurrent users then the per processor licence is the way to go (unlimited connections)

Of course it also helps if your arunning Windows NT....which I'm not...

Hi...

Let me give my comment here.

You say taht you are serving around 2.5K pages a month... That is VERY little.
I am currently serving nearly 200,000 pageviews a DAY.

I am now on an SQL server though.

However, back in the days when I was on access, I served around 40K a day. That is a lot, and it was a bit slow (considdering that the database was at more than 70 megs).

I do not really believe that it would be worth upgrading for you; If it takes 5 seconds to load a page, I wouldn't see that as a problem; most people got 5 seconds to spare.

However, once you get used to SQL Server, you cannot live without it! Its a great database, and makes it all very easy to work with.

Thats my 5 cents.

~Casper Bang

Thankyou for putting it into perspective hotcut. From what you said it would seem I would have a LONG way to go b4 I need to consider spending a coupla thousand dollars!!

Which is a relief coz Christmas is just round the corner and my kids would lose out!!! :santa: