SQL Express Considerations

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SQL Express is a free version of SQL Server. It is freely available from Microsoft. For up-to-date information on downloading SQL Express from Microsoft, go to

http://www.mainboss.com/info/microsoft.htm

SQL Express will provide acceptable performance for small sites. Larger sites should buy one of the larger versions of SQL Server.

We should note that SQL Express lacks some features of paid-for versions of SQL Server. For example, SQL Express does not have automatic maintenance plans, Microsoft's facilities that simplifies automatic backups and integrity checks. However, expressmaint is a free software package that provides some of the functionality that's missing in SQL Express. For more information, see

http://expressmaint.codeplex.com/

The expressmaint package is not a Thinkage or Microsoft product. Neither MainBoss Support nor Microsoft will provide any support for this package.

The rest of this appendix describes considerations for installing and working with SQL Express.