Please mention SQL Express has a Database size limit.

[Aadithya01]

Hi Guys,

I am just opening this thread, so that it will be useful for someone else in Future. 

I support few customers on Vault. Taking care of the implementation, till they are onboard in Vault.. For an Application Engineer like me who has not much idea about SQL, recently we faced an issue where the customer had faced a database size limit (of 10GB) with SQL Express and this stopped the Vault Server which was the production server at the customer end. Also in India many Autodesk Partners like us have recently faced the situation. 

Immediately we created a Temporary vault server, Installed Vault with the default SQL Express, then we upgraded the AUTODESKVAULT instance from SQL Express with SQL Standard (with no support from Autodesk) and finally restored the Vault server with the latest backup. 

To complete the above it took nearly 1.5 days.. 

My kind suggestion is that Please mention SQL Express has a Database size limit in the system requirements page for Vault server. I can understand that this SQL Express size limit is controlled by Microsoft, but generically please mentioned SQL Express has a Database size limit to be referred in the Microsoft's official page. Kindly mention a caution statement like this in the System Requirements Page of Vault server.

For an application engineer who is only aware of the working method of Vault and who is not much aware of SQL (which I believe is the similar case with many Application engineers), it would have been really helpful if the System Requirements page of Vault server had mentioned that SQL Express has a Database size limit (but this is not mentioned there). 

You can also refer to Solidworks PDM System Requirements which doesn't even mention SQL Express. Even our Vault System requirements must not mention SQL Express. This is a kind request to the Autodesk Vault Team. 

Kindly looking forward to a reply from the Autodesk Vault Product Team. 

@Senthil_Kumar @ihayesjr 

[ihayesjr]

@Aadithya01 

While I understand the request, putting SQL limitations in the system requirements wouldn't be something we would do. Just as your example from Solidworks, while they don't use SQL Express, SQL Standard does have limitations which they don't list either. As Microsoft could change their limitations at any time, we don't want to keep changing these pages to every time they change their requirements.

If you are an Autodesk Partner, please reach out to your Autodesk Partner manager and discuss training on Vault so that you have a good understanding of all of the parts of Vault. 

We do have the following article. Vault 2024 Help | Maximum size for a Vault database using SQL Express | Autodesk

I can add more information in the SQL section on this page. Vault 2024 Help | Plan Your Deployment | Autodesk

Also, we do provide instructions for upgrading SQL Express to a high edition. Vault 2024 Help | Upgrade MS SQL Server and MS SQL Express | Autodesk

[Frederick_Law]

It is a Microsoft SQL License limit, not a physicals limit:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2022?view=sql...

[ihayesjr]

@Frederick_Law 

It is a database size limitation.

[Frederick_Law]

Yes, the database size limit is set by Microsoft on the SQL Express License.

A "software" limit.

[ihayesjr]

Which is the point @Aadithya01 is trying to make. Regardless of what type of limit it is, he wants us to put it on the Vault system requirements.

[Aadithya01]

Exactly right @ihayesjr .. Please mention that the SQL variants have database size limits (in the system requirements page itself) which should be referred in the Microsoft official page.. Which will be a great hint for anyone who wants to first qualify the Windows server before installing Vault. 

[ihayesjr]

@Aadithya01 

This is Solidworks actual website listing their system requirements. It makes no mention of SQL editions or limitations.

System Requirements | SOLIDWORKS

I will add a line item at the bottom of the 2025 system requirements recommending that you look at Microsoft's website for SQL information. Like previously stated, I am not going to list specific as Microsoft might change them at any time.

[Aadithya01]

That would be great @ihayesjr and will be helpful for many people. 

Thankyou so much for considering my request. 

[GunnarNilsson]

There is no need to set up a secondary server for SQL Standard. Just run the SQL Standard setup on the production server and choose Maintenance on the SQL Server Installation Center. On that screen choose Edition Upgrade. In less than 30 seconds the upgrade is finished.