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MS SQL Server 2022 Express - how to check if it would handle

Michael W87 20 Reputation points
2023-03-01T11:03:48.46+00:00

Hi. We have SQL Server 2012 Standard x86 running 5 databases used by remote users. Databases combined weight is 613MB, users work on them simultaneously, all databases run at once. Due to high cost of SQL 2019 or 2022 with CALs I was wondering about using SQL 2022 Express. I know there're limitations, but because of the small size of databases I think it may work. How can I check how much resources my SQL 2012 Standard is using? May I use just some stats from Systnternals Process Explorer for certain processess? I'm going to upgrade my serwer with Windows Server 2019 Essentials and I'd like to put SQL that is still maintained, but I'm not 100% sure Express version will handle well.

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  1. Seeya Xi-MSFT 16,461 Reputation points
    2023-03-02T02:01:17.2533333+00:00

    Hi @Michael W87 ,

    To check how much resources your SQL Server 2012 Standard is using, you can use Activity Monitor or Performance Monitor (PerfMon).

    Using Activity Monitor:

    Connect to your SQL Server instance using SSMS.

    In Object Explorer, right-click the SQL Server instance and select Activity Monitor.

    In the Activity Monitor, you can see the current resource usage of your SQL Server, including CPU usage, memory usage, and disk I/O.

    Using PerfMon:

    Open PerfMon by typing "perfmon" in the Run dialog box or in the Command Prompt.

    In the Performance Monitor, you can add counters to monitor the resource usage of your SQL Server, including Processor Time, Memory\Available MBytes, Physical Disk\Disk Reads/sec, and Physical Disk\Disk Writes/sec.

    Regarding using SQL Server 2022 Express, it has some limitations that you should consider before making a decision:

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2022?view=sql-server-ver16#scale-limits

    If your databases are less than 10GB in total and the server has fewer than 4 cores, then SQL Server 2022 Express may be a good fit for your needs. However, if you have more cores or more memory, you may want to consider other editions of SQL Server.

    Of course it has functional limitations, you can check my previous link for details.

    Lastly, upgrading to the latest version of SQL Server may not always be necessary. However, upgrading to a version that is still under mainstream support is recommended for security and bug fixes.

    Best regards,

    Seeya

    If the answer is the right solution, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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  1. Michael W87 20 Reputation points
    2023-03-07T13:17:07.1066667+00:00

    I studied everything once again and apparently 64bit SQL 2019 is supported by software we're using. It's just the program that sucks when converting from MS Access to MS SQL databases, but anyway...

    So I installed SQL 2019 Express on a VM, attached databases, managed to connect to them from my other machines and... it's really strange. SQL 2019 Express 64bit is pulling way more memory than 32bit 2012, at least in working set.

    Bez tytułu2

    Note that SQL 2012 is idle in above picture, and SQL 2019 is working with 4 users on dbs.

    Is that normal?