Content database storage limit in MOSS 2007 SP2?
I have read somwhere Microsoft recommends 200 GB storage limit per content database. What Microsoft recommends for content database storage per site collection? We have 1 content database per site collection and some of them growing very large (280 GB). So far we have not seen any performance issue but I want to know is it ok to have content database > 200 GB if we have 1 content database per site collection or we should start moving some sites to diffrent content database/site collection before things get worst? What are the best practices to move sites between content database? (move using stsadm Mergecontentdbs?) If we move the sites to different database/site collection, URL will change. Is there any way we can keep the same URL? Any help appreciated!
April 18th, 2012 10:08am

Check out my blog post, I answer this question: http://davidlozzi.com/2012/03/20/questions-on-sharepoint-2010-databases/ This is a very common question across the board. Microsofts documentation recommends a maximum of 200GB per content database. This isnt a limitation, just a recommendation. They are recommending this level due to performance and maintenance considerations. When your database gets much larger than that, there are some additional steps you need to take to optimize SQLs performance. Check out MSs white paper on Managing Multi-Terabyte Content Databases with Microsoft SharePoint 2010. This paper explains whats needed to optimize databases between 200GB and 4TB, and then databases even larger than that! @DavidLozzi DavidLozzi.com About.me
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April 18th, 2012 10:12am

Hello, For databse size limitations, following articles should help considering you are on MOSS http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joelo/archive/2006/08/01/684691.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joelo/archive/2006/10/06/sharepoint-tech-content-database-sizing-and-capacity-planning-_2800_backup_2f00_restore-implications_2900_.aspx SQL related limitations can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143432.aspx Now moving site collection across content database should NOT change the URL. In my case, I used approach to use STSADM Backup-restore to move site collection in another content database. Please let me know if you need more information for the process.Regards, Rohan --Please mark as "Answer" if the post resolve your issue--
April 19th, 2012 5:11am

thanks for yor reply Rohan. Can you please explain me how moving site collection across content database should NOT change the URL using stsadm backup-restore. If I move site from http://webapp/sitecollection1/ to http://webapp/sitecollection2 URL of site will change from http://webapp/sitecollection1/site to http://webapp/sitecollection2/site
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April 25th, 2012 3:50pm

thanks for yor reply Rohan. Can you please explain me how moving site collection across content database should NOT change the URL using stsadm backup-restore. If I move site from http://webapp/sitecollection1/ to http://webapp/sitecollection2 URL of site will change from http://webapp/sitecollection1/site to http://webapp/sitecollection2/site
April 25th, 2012 3:50pm

Hi, You can associate as many content databases as you want to the single web application correct? So e.g. your web app is http://webapp so there could be multiple content databases for this. Let us say you have two: ContentDB1 and ContentDB2 Now assume that your site colelction is http://webapp/sitecollection1 which is in ContentDB1 And to move it to ContentDB2, you'll need to follow the steps: 1. Backup http://webapp/sitecollection1 2. Delete http://webapp/sitecollection1 3. set ContentDB1 in Offline mode (or set limit to the current number of sites) 4. Set ContentDB2 such that limit is greater than existing. (i.e. now there is space for at-least 1 site) 5. restore the backup file on same URL e.g. stsadm -o restore -url http://webapp/sitecollection1 -filename E:\YourFileName.bak So basically we are simple backup and restoring the file.. but it changes location in another ContentDB. Hope this helps, Regards, Rohan --Please mark as "Answer" if the post resolve your issue--
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April 26th, 2012 8:47am

Hi, You can associate as many content databases as you want to the single web application correct? So e.g. your web app is http://webapp so there could be multiple content databases for this. Let us say you have two: ContentDB1 and ContentDB2 Now assume that your site colelction is http://webapp/sitecollection1 which is in ContentDB1 And to move it to ContentDB2, you'll need to follow the steps: 1. Backup http://webapp/sitecollection1 2. Delete http://webapp/sitecollection1 3. set ContentDB1 in Offline mode (or set limit to the current number of sites) 4. Set ContentDB2 such that limit is greater than existing. (i.e. now there is space for at-least 1 site) 5. restore the backup file on same URL e.g. stsadm -o restore -url http://webapp/sitecollection1 -filename E:\YourFileName.bak So basically we are simple backup and restoring the file.. but it changes location in another ContentDB. Hope this helps, Regards, Rohan --Please mark as "Answer" if the post resolve your issue--
April 26th, 2012 8:47am

Hi, I agree with rohan's reply and You can also split the Growing Content DB and move the growing site collections to another Content database or to another server using the below command. Stsadm -o mergecontentdbs -url<URL>-sourcedatabasename<database name>-destinationdatabasename<database name>-operation 3 -filename<file name> Refer this URL : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc825326(v=office.12).aspx Split a content database (move a site collection to a different database) At a command prompt on the drive where SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed, change to the following directory: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin Type the following command, and then press ENTER: Stsadm -o enumsites -url<URL> ><path/file name>.xml where url is the address of the Web application that contains the site collection that you want to move, and path/file name is the name of the XML file that you want to create with the site collection data. The previous step creates an XML file that contains all of the site collection URLs in the current database. Open the XML file that you created in a text editing application. If there are any URLs for site collections that you do not want to move, be sure to delete them from the file. The only URLs that should remain in the XML file should be for the site collections that you want to move. Note: There is no need to change the site count or any of the other site collection information in the file. Only the URLs are relevant to this procedure. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:Stsadm -o mergecontentdbs -url<URL>-sourcedatabasename<database name>-destinationdatabasename<database name>-operation 3 -filename<file name> where url is the address of the Web application that contains the site collection that you want; sourcedatabasename is the name of the database that you want to move the site collection from; destinationdatabasename is the name of the database that you want to move the site collection to; operation 3 is the Read from file operation; and file name is the name of the file that contains the site collection URLs that you want to move. Restart IIS by typing the following command, and then pressing ENTER:iisreset /noforce Thanks, K.R.Senthil Kumar
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April 27th, 2012 2:11am

Hi, I agree with rohan's reply and You can also split the Growing Content DB and move the growing site collections to another Content database or to another server using the below command. Stsadm -o mergecontentdbs -url<URL>-sourcedatabasename<database name>-destinationdatabasename<database name>-operation 3 -filename<file name> Refer this URL : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc825326(v=office.12).aspx Split a content database (move a site collection to a different database) At a command prompt on the drive where SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed, change to the following directory: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin Type the following command, and then press ENTER: Stsadm -o enumsites -url<URL> ><path/file name>.xml where url is the address of the Web application that contains the site collection that you want to move, and path/file name is the name of the XML file that you want to create with the site collection data. The previous step creates an XML file that contains all of the site collection URLs in the current database. Open the XML file that you created in a text editing application. If there are any URLs for site collections that you do not want to move, be sure to delete them from the file. The only URLs that should remain in the XML file should be for the site collections that you want to move. Note: There is no need to change the site count or any of the other site collection information in the file. Only the URLs are relevant to this procedure. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:Stsadm -o mergecontentdbs -url<URL>-sourcedatabasename<database name>-destinationdatabasename<database name>-operation 3 -filename<file name> where url is the address of the Web application that contains the site collection that you want; sourcedatabasename is the name of the database that you want to move the site collection from; destinationdatabasename is the name of the database that you want to move the site collection to; operation 3 is the Read from file operation; and file name is the name of the file that contains the site collection URLs that you want to move. Restart IIS by typing the following command, and then pressing ENTER:iisreset /noforce Thanks, K.R.Senthil Kumar
April 27th, 2012 2:11am

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