Server or NAS for databases

tinydextor · September 23, 2019

We currently have a very simple setup at the business as most of our IT requirements are online (email, shared drive) but we have two programs that we run internally. The first one is Microsoft Access Database and the second one is Pervasive PSQL database. We currently have a desktop PC that we have mapped out of the databases on and point everyone too and that has been fine when we had 8 users. Now we are 16 users and the performance has taken a knock because its too much traffic and the load times have increased dramatically.

We have 2 x 24 port switches downstairs (all gigabit connection) that then goes into the main PC that house the databases. The databases are small both not bigger then 3 gigs so the storage doesn't have to be huge.

What we trying to do is get rid of bottleneck and get the speed back up and we were contemplating which is the best way to go for the network and the databases? Would a NAS with dual gigabit and RAID setup be sufficient or should we upgrade to a proper Tower Server with either RAID or SSD for the databases and then use quad NIC card as well?

Any feedback or assistance would be great?

AbsoluteFool · September 23, 2019

5 hours ago, tinydextor said:

We currently have a very simple setup at the business as most of our IT requirements are online (email, shared drive) but we have two programs that we run internally. The first one is Microsoft Access Database and the second one is Pervasive PSQL database. We currently have a desktop PC that we have mapped out of the databases on and point everyone too and that has been fine when we had 8 users. Now we are 16 users and the performance has taken a knock because its too much traffic and the load times have increased dramatically.

We have 2 x 24 port switches downstairs (all gigabit connection) that then goes into the main PC that house the databases. The databases are small both not bigger then 3 gigs so the storage doesn't have to be huge.

What we trying to do is get rid of bottleneck and get the speed back up and we were contemplating which is the best way to go for the network and the databases? Would a NAS with dual gigabit and RAID setup be sufficient or should we upgrade to a proper Tower Server with either RAID or SSD for the databases and then use quad NIC card as well?

Any feedback or assistance would be great?

Databases now days are usually high IOPS. E.g SSD drives, mediume RAM, mediume CPU. A NAS that runs a database i would assume is extremely slow depending on the database size and structure.

tinydextor · September 23, 2019

Thank you for feedback. Points me in the right direction.

Antdonn · September 24, 2019

Maybe I’m being daft, but I’d port all your databases to sqlserver or MySQL server, the. Use odbc to connect, it will. Avoid the degreased corruption that plates access db’s that get large.

tinydextor · October 10, 2019

Hey Antdonn, so interestingly the access DBs haven’t had any corruptions with all the users. Might just be super lucky there. But yes we are in the progress of getting developers to quote to move all the info to MySQL databases. Will take some time. But doesn’t help the speed issues if the server is the bottleneck.

thank you for your input. If you have anything else that I should keep in mind that would be great.