Hi,
Does anyone have production DNN sites running on Windows Server 2003 64 Bit? How about with the 64 bit version of SQL server 2005? I am building 2 servers that will be put in a colocation facility.
Server #1: A web server running either the 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 2003 Standard edition/IIS6 and will run a few Dotnetnuke installations and a custom .net 2.0 application with some heavy traffic.
Server #2 will be a dedicated DB server for the above websites running SQL 2005 (32 vs. 64 bit is yet to be determined for both OS and SQL on this box) Multiple RAID arrays will be used to separate data files, log files, and temp db for optimal SQL performance.
All hardware is 64-Bit capable. Both boxes will have a minimum of 4GB fully buffered RAM. The software at my disposal includes both the 32 or 64 bit Windows 2003 server but currently only the 32 bit version of SQL 2005. I am trying to weigh the pros and the cons of spending the money for the upgrade to the 64 bit version of SQL 2005......as I am building these boxes now and won't have easy access to them soon it seems like the logical time to make the 64 bit plunge if I am to take it. However, I have never personally even experimented with DNN in a 64 bit environment......I am perhaps most scared about 3rd party modules. My main reason for wanting to go the 64 bit route is easy future scalability in terms of memory. I am using the Standard Edition of WY2k3 so I am "limited" to 4-Way symmetric multiprocessing with either 32 or 64 bit.........and if I use 32 bit limited to 4GB of RAM.
Here is what I am thinking of doing is this crazy or foolish:
Loading the 64bit Server 2003 OS on the Database server but using my 32 Bit SQL Server 2005. By default the 32 bit version of SQL could only use 2GB of RAM if I was running it on 32bit windows....but using WOW64.exe emulation the 64bit windows would allow me to use 4GB of RAM for SQL.....if I needed more I could use AWE.
But the webserver itself......I don't know if there is any advantage for me loading the 64 bit and the more I think about it the more I think about it.......any suggestions, recommendations or enlightenment would be truly appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris