Max limit of SQL Server (SQL Server 2000)

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Does anyone know if there is a maximum limit to the amount of data you can pump into a SQL server. I’m not talking about memory on the physical server but the capacity of SQL Server itself. For example, MS Access has a 2GB limit.

I’m reading up on SQL Server administration and am looking to have my company send me to a class, but until then, I want to make sure nothing blows up on us.

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Yes there is a maximum limit in a single database, but of course you can have clusters. Anyhow the limit in SQL Server is 1+ TerraBytes (unless you are using Desktop Engine or MSDE). In addition, SQL Server can use up to 64GB of memory (RAM), so many typical databases can acutally be stored in memory, which really makes them hum. We run a database that tracks about 100K people and lots of details about them in an environment with about 60 users, and from an Access front-end we run well under 1 second response time on the average response time to a query for a specific person. It is less than 2GB in size, and the server has 2GB of RAM, which really helps with the performance.

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In addition to what Wendell has already said, individual SQL databases and their log files are allocated an amount of disk space. This amount can either be completely static, or can grow as needed. You can find these settings by firing up Enterprise Mananger and drilling down to the database in question. Right-click on it, choose Properties, and examine the Data Files and Transaction Log tabs looking at the space allocated for both, whether they’re set to grow automatically or are static, and if they’re set to grow automatically, how. Have fun!

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