Size of a Design File at Vault Database

[Anonymous]

Hi,

We recently talk with one of our customers for implementation. We want to know how much disk space we will need for Vault. Moreover we want to know if SQL Server 2008 R2 Express will be enough for us. I know it has a database limit of 10 gb. Let's say I have 5 gb of design data in my company. Will it occupy the same space at SQL Server? Or will it be compressed and occupy less storage at Vault? If so can we guess an approximate number?

One last question 🙂 To keep an eye on vault whether I'm gonna exceed the 10 gb limit, which of these boxes should I check regularly?

Cheers,

[ryan · Accepted solution]

Vault only stores the property information inside the SQL database, it does not store the file.  Although SQL does allow you to store binary data inside the database, Autodesk made the right decision by NOT storing the file in the database and instead, storing a pointer to the file(s) which are contained in the Filestore.  Therefore, when you are talking about limits to database size (e.g. 10GB), you are talking about textual content.  This is also why it is VERY important that an I.T. department does not simply rely on a backup of an SQL database because you only have 1/2 of what you need to put the vault back together again, in effect, making your SQL backup meaningless 😞

Although there is no specific mathematical formula, I have attached a table of values from production vault environments just to give you some idea of Database to Filestore comparisons.

The 10GB limit is PER DATABASE; therefore, you could actually have your orange box showing in excess of that if you had multiple vaults.  For example;  Vault A is 3B, Vault B is 4GB and Vault C is 6GB.  In this case your total database size would be 13GB but still allowable in Express.

-Ryan

[Anonymous]

Hi Ryan,

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. It helped a lot.

Cheers,