Hello, We currently have a MOSS 2007 installation which is running several application templates, services (i.e. indexing), and a custom workflow solution which involves assemblies compiled from Visual Studio 2005 Professional, Sharepoint Designer 2007, InfoPath Forms 2007 and a SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition database for the Sharepoint content database and so forth. I have a feeling I know the answer to this question, but because we are having so many problems with getting Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (we currently have Standard), I was trying to find an alternative. The main reason we need to upgrade from Standard to Enterprise is because we need to migrate our Sharepoint databases to this new server, but with Standard, we have a limit of 4G RAM, and we have 32G RAM ready to install, but again, we cannot because of the 4G RAM limitation with Windows Server 2003 Standard. I know there will probably be an issue with migration from the 32-bit version of SQL Server 2005, not to mention known issues with the indexing service in Sharepoint. But, I thought I might run it by the experts in this forum to see if perhaps there is a workaround I am unaware of, or something i am overlooking. Any help, suggestion or point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Buster

Thank you Lily and Serge for your great information. Best Regards, Buster

Hi Lily, Sorry, just one more question. We are not moving the web server, just the back end SQL Server 2005 database. For this reason, we shouldn't have to upgrade to the 64-bit version right? We currently have the front end running with the admin, content and config databases running in SQL Server 2005 on a Windows Server 2003 Enterprise machine with 24G ram, all of which seems to be used. In fact, we are getting intermittent time outs (for instance when users submit report requests through our report intake site which uses a workflow and InfoPath form). Shouldn't we be able to simply upgrade to 64-bit for the SQL machine? Or would this still affect Sharepoint and how the front end web server behaves? Thanks, Buster

Hi, Just to be clear because i am a little confused.. The following are Windows Server 2003 Memory limits The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows Server 2003. Limits over 4 GB for 32-bit Windows assume that PAE is enabled. Limit for x86 Limit for x64 Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition 64 GB 1TB Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Enterprise Edition 16 GB with 4GT Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition 4 GB 32 GB Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition SP1 Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition SP2 Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition 128 GB 512 GB 16 GB with 4GT Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition 32 GB 64 GB 16 GB with 4GT Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition 4 GB 16 GB Windows Server 2003, Web Edition 2 GB Not applicable Windows Small Business Server 2003 4 GB Not applicable Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Not applicable 32 GB The following table summarizes the maximum memory support options for different configurations of SQL Server 2005. (Note that a particular edition of SQL Server or Windows may put more restrictive limits on the amount of supported memory. Configuration VAS Max physical memory AWE/locked pages support Native 32-bit on 32-bit OS 2 GB 64 GB Yes with /3GB boot parameter[1] 3 GB 16 GB Yes 32-bit on x64 OS (WOW) 4 GB 64 GB Yes 32-bit on IA64 OS (WOW) 2 GB 2 GB No Native 64-bit on x64 OS 8 terabyte 1 terabyte Yes Native 64-bit on IA64 OS 7 terabyte 1 terabyte Yes Note: In Microsoft Windows each process has its own Virtual Address Space VAS and this can be used up prior to running out of physical memory In other words using your existing standard edition license you would be able to use 16GB of RAM if you used the x64 version of the OS.. Also, its important to note that if your license includes R2, you would be able to use 32 GB with the x64 standard edition and 1TB with your x64 enterprise edition. However, if SQL is becoming IO bound then you need to look at Wait Stats and Latches state to find whether the issue is processor, memory, or disk. Read the everything by Bill Baer on SQL... If your using a NAS or ISCI SAN for SQL Volumes you will have high latency. Dont use NAS unless there is nothing else, DAS is always better than NAS... In summary migrate SQL to x64, dont use NAS for SQL, ensure your Dbs, Volumes, etc are configured properly according to the best6 practices (Bill Baer) and perform SQL maintenance routinely Reference: Bill Baers Blog http://blogs.technet.com/b/wbaer/ Scaling SharePoint Architecture for Performance by Russ Houberg http://www.knowledgelake.com/resources/Documents/Whitepapers/Scaling%20SharePoint%202007%20-%20Storage%20Architecture.pdf -IvanIvan Sanders My LinkedIn Profile, My Blog, @iasanders.

WOW, leanred a lot from starting this thread. Thank you so much everyone. We've decided for sanity sake to go for Windows 2003 Server Enterprise. Thanks, Bruce