Maintaining databases (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

 

Topic Last Modified: 2008-08-06

This section describes ways that you can help improve the performance, reliability, and scalability of SharePoint Products and Technologies databases by using some easily applied planning, deployment, and maintenance practices.

A properly planned and configured database farm is crucial to the optimal performance and reliability of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Once the farm is operating, regular database maintenance such as defragmenting drives, managing file sizes, and balancing loads enables the databases to scale without impeding performance. Moving databases, often a necessary part of an equipment upgrade or service expansion, must be performed without data loss and with minimal down time.

Task Requirements

The following restrictions apply to many database maintenance operations:

• Whenever a database is manipulated, such as creating, moving, or merging databases, adequate SQL Server permissions must be used. Some operations require a dbcreator fixed database role while others require a dbowner fixed database account.

• When using the Stsadm command-line tool, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

• Some database maintenance, such as moving, requires that the databases be stopped. Be sure to perform these tasks during periods of low usage and provide adequate notice to all users.

• Before beginning any database maintenance, ensure that the data backups are current.

• Whenever possible, observe the following database limitations:

  • Databases should not exceed 100 gigabytes (GB) in size. If a database is approaching this limit, consider splitting the database and moving some of the content to another database or server.

  • Databases perform best when they contain data that is accessed in similar ways. For example, a database that contains a read-write site collection and a read-only site collection may not perform as well as a database that contains only read-write site collections.

  • To avoid bottlenecks, avoid combining resources that are likely to be accessed simultaneously into the same database.

To maintain SharePoint Products and Technologies databases, you can perform the following procedures:

• Database maintenance for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (white paper)

  Describes the recommended database maintenance tasks for SharePoint Products and Technologies and includes examples.

• Planning and Monitoring SQL Server Storage for Windows SharePoint Services: Performance Recommendations and Best Practices (white paper)

  Provides planning tips and best practices to help optimize performance, scalability, and manageability.

• Add, split, and merge content databases (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

  Offers step by step procedures to help manage content databases to meet changing demands.

• Move content databases (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

  Contains procedures for moving databases as part of an upgrade, recovery process, or deployment to a new farm.

• Move all databases (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

  Lists the steps for moving all of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 databases from one database server to another database server within the same farm.

See Also

Concepts

Operations for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology
Administering security and permissions (Windows SharePoint Services)
Protecting and restoring the farm (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)
Administering servers and server farms (Windows SharePoint Services)
Move and migrate servers and server farms (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)