New Forum ... What Database?

Expecting heavy traffic ...

[buksida]

I currently run a phpBB board with mySQL that works a treat. However I have the task of setting up a new forum on a rather big news website. It does not support PHP as the server is Windows so I need to use an ASP forum. I have found one online (Snitz Forum) thats looks pretty good (would appreciate and feedback on that also).

Next question would be which database? Access or MS SQL and why? I am expecting heavy traffic on the forum as the site gets a lot of readers. Would appreciate any feedback and experiences.

Thanks.

[deejay]

Heavy traffic = not Access.

[rogerd]

Heavy traffic is relative, and Access can do pretty well in moderately busy environments. Inherently, though, it's not scalable in the same way that MSSQL is, so I'd lean toward that solution.

One thing I'd do is read the forums for the BBS software and see what people say about volume vs. database performance.

[encyclo]

MySQL runs just fine on Windows - are you able to use that? For that matter, PHP runs just fine on Windows too - is the problem that you have to use an existing server, or are you able to add new software?

Access is a handy desktop application, not a serious backend database. If you can't use MySQL, then MS-SQL is the only way to go.

I've never used it, but Snitz has a good reputation.

[Timotheos]

It does not support PHP as the server is Windows so I need to use an ASP forum.

Uh... both PHP and mySQL work great on Windows.

[php.net...]

[mcavill]

I've got a snitz forum on an access DB running on one of my sites - I quite like it, my forum isn't very busy, only a handful of posts a day, performance seems fine, although I've heard some people say it can be a bit heavy on bandwith.

The code was easy to tweak the titles etc, and add spiderable links to previous pages of topics (the default was a drop down menu).

I couldn't find a mod to change the variables FORUM_ID=nn and TOPIC_ID=nn - which I don't think google likes too much, due to the ID, although it has indexed it, it shows no TBPR, and I haven't got around to changing it myself.

With a bit of customisation, and a proper database, I imagine you could run a decent forum with snitz...IMHO, etc...

[buksida]

Thanks for the replies. I know PHP is installable on Windows but I don't own the server and it already has SQL Server on it so I'll be using that. Besides it may just be easier to install an ASP board on an SQL dbase, will be good experience too working with both of them!

No doubt I'll have more questions. Cheers!

[buksida]

Another question:

Would I need a new database or could the tables live in the existing one?

[lorax]

Re: Access - correct me if I'm wrong but the only way to work with Access on a webserver is to use an ODBC connection - which are inherently sluggish - no?

Re: tables. You can add many tables to your existing MySQL db. You don't need to create a seperate db.

Good luck.

[rogerd]

I'd guess Access would be good for thousands of daily pageviews, or perhaps tens of thousands. If you are in the hundreds of thousands or millions, Access might hit the wall. I haven't done much with Access-based forums, but I have experience with ecom sites that handle fairly decent traffic with Access.