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I'm wondering, I am going to have to buy the full SQL database for my PMR program. Can AC run off the full monte, will it be faster opening labs, pdfs the using whatever abbreviated version AC has now?

Probably, but you would lose the Guardian Angel support if something were to happen.

Funny thing, my office mgr was having the same thoughts. The Angel logged into out system today and told us that the SQL express is limited to 4 G, we're over that and that's why we have been randomly losing demographic data from out system. He said we have to get the full SQL and obviously won't lose the Angels.

The next question is why doesn't AC make it known that there is a size limit on the thing. Same thing happened with our PM program, we spent hours and money trying to figure the problem out and paying tech time.

John

I'm confused - your database is over 4GIGs, and that is what is producing data loss?

Also, they said you would, or would not, loose support running SQL?

My database is way over 7 GB, and I'm not having problems.

The database does not include II and images/signatures. The database are those MDF and LDF files in the AC folder. After 10 years, our MDF file is 1GB. The actual backup size of just the database is ~150MB.

The portion of the database that is actively managed by SQL is > 4G. That according to the angels is what has been the cause of our demographics sporatically disappearing from AC. Sandeep is who though I would lose support if I ran the full SQL Server 2012 program.
MDR is my PM software which I will gladly loose if AC's PM is a winner.

You shouldn't lose data because your data is over 4GB. Yes, if you change to SQL Server 2012, you would lose your support. SQL will allow you a grace period past 4GB, but it is difficult to know how much that will be. But, at that point, you should have read only and no write, but you shouldn't lose data. It's not as if, SQL purges data and adds more.

There is also no actual reason to go with 2012 (although newer is usually better). SQL Server 2005, would be just fine. You have to remember, AC isn't that good with SQL support. I think you are very proficient with SQL, I can't recall. But, it isn't that easy to make an instance with anything but 2005 Express.

The other possibility is 2008 Express, which is free. It gives you 10GB of space but still only one GB of RAM. It would be really nice to have the unlimited RAM that most of the non-express versions have. Performance would be much better, and you could utilize that tons of RAM that a 64-bit OS allows.

I wonder if it is an issue of 32-bit addressing. Besides the actual size of the DB, there is the indexing tree and the database caching that also consumes memory.

They will have to upgrade in the near future, since Windows 8 is NOT compatible with our current version of SQL.

Good reason not to use Windows 8, lol.

If you are interested, I have my SQL guy purge the data and condense it into a MUCH smaller database. Let me know.

Bert,

I think that's what AC tech support was suppose to do yesterday and post-poned it until today. I'll let you know, thanks.

Okay - AC Angels logged in and shrunk from >4g database down to 1.4g. That's quite amazing and they did it very quickly. Hopefully it will fix my AC problem - we'll see.

There we go. Probably just over-sized log files or something. It happens.

John, when you say 7 GBs, what are you including?

The whole AC folder. I misunderstood what "the database" was.

Oh, I had been wondering. Thought you had some magical 2005 Express.

As an FYI to anyone who cares. It is a 4 GB limit to each database. It isn't cumulative. The log files don't count. So, for all practical purposes, the only database which counts is the AmazingCharts.mdf.

At some point, AC will need to move to 2008 or 2012 Express. The two main limitations of those are 10 GB storage and 1 GB RAM. It's the 1 GB of RAM, which is driving me crazy.

To put things in perspective, SQL Server 2012 Standard allows 64 GB of RAM and 524 PBs of space. That's 524 million GIGABYTES. That should allow Jon to do a few more colonoscopies.

Why does the 1GB limit drive you crazy?

The vast majority of practices here aren't that big.

JamesNT

James, you're talking to the guy who has $3000 desktops with top of the line SSDs, 8GB RAM, GTX 560Ti's...

I'm guessing it's all about speed lol. Who doesn't like instantaneous response times? With enough RAM, SQL server won't even query the hard drive, everything will be in memory. Ever since I got an SSD, I can't stop recommending them. All of my personal computers and my computers at home have SSDs now.

There's a reason SQL Express is free. Just wanna keep my pages.

Sandeep,

Yeah, I should have kept the "guy who has $3000 desktops" part in mind. "Bertimus Prime" appears to be a better and better nickname all the time. Or maybe Galvatron. . .

JamesNT