Is is bad/good/no diff to have different dbs doing different parts of a web site? I have a section that is only temporarily going to be run from the Access db that is already there and would rather not incorporate the tables from this into that one. Any reasons for or against? Can you have multiple dbs on the server (in the protected space set up)?
Some servers may be setp up in a way to limit your number of databases by space, number of files, or connections. I have not seen this to be typical.
As to whether it is good or bad, or what the pros and cons are, rather than suggesting a conclusive answer, I’ll post some thoughts that others may want to comment on.
I have seen the extreme bad case of using too many databases for a single site. I was called in to help fix a client’s web application because they had mission critical data disappearing on them without explanation. Because the application had no documentation from the previous developer, I had to take some time to review the application and the code to determine what was going on. The application called data and processes from 4 or 5 different databases. Keeping track of everything and eventually documenting the application for the client was a mess.
Having multiple databases also made it hard to track down the bug.
I propose that if the website is to act as a web application where site pages/sections are to interact with each other, and data that is related to other data for the application is dynamically served up from a database, then it is best to keep all the related data and the processes in a single database.
By the way, since your situation sounds like just a temporary thing, I’d probably keep it the way it is.
Often when dealing with Legacy systems and existing Business Apps it is nearly impossible to integrate them directly and you have to rely on notty DTS Services and so on.
If you are developing from the ground up I would say have at most 2-3, but only if there is a reason for it. Otherwise keep it central. The 2-3 stems from the "keep the user information, the super sensitivie info and the normal info" separate school of thought
thanks guys for the input, good stuff to think on. the problem is the head office wanting to release this before everything is in place on the backend, which accounts for the temp nature of having 2 dbs for the different sections of the site. once the backend is all in place, the 2nd db will go away.
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