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Summary:

What are the limitations of using MSDE as the BigFix database?

Solution:

MSDE is a version of Microsoft SQL Server that developers can use and freely distribute as part of an application. MSDE 2000/2005 is the default SQL database that is installed with the BigFix Server if the BigFix Server computer does not have Microsoft SQL Server installed already.

There are a few limitations that MSDE imposes including: a limit on the size of the database (2 GB), a limit on the number of processors utilized (2), and a limit on the number of concurrent connections. For more information on MSDE limitations, please refer to Microsoft's web site.

These limitations will not usually affect BigFix unless there is more than one BigFix Console operator connected to the BigFix database at the same time. If more than one BigFix Console operator is connected to the BigFix database at the same time, the performance of the database will be degraded until there is one BigFix Console user connected to the database. If a company intends to have more than one BigFix Console concurrently accessing the same BigFix Server database, then they will need to buy, if they don't already own, a full version of Microsoft SQL Server.

BigFix recommends using the full version of SQL Server 2000/2005 for all production deployments because of the limitations listed above and because of the ease of administration of SQL Server 2000/2005.