Large website / database question..

[ThreeD]

ok, so I'm on the verge of making a huge website, that's the plan anyways, and I need it to be run off of a HUGE database. What would you guys suggest, mssql, mysql? for running the website apache, IIS, Windows SQL Server? I've pretty much made up my mind about PHP, so I guess the initial aim would be Apache and MySQL, but I'm open for suggestions..

I've made several websites with php, apache and mysql, and it worked fine. I'm just worried about websites with a lot of traffic and a lot of search functions, if that will overload Apache and MySQL.

I'm kind of curious as to what the big websites out there are using? eBay? Amazon? Nba.com? Cnn.com?

If any of you have experience with huge websites please share you experience I want to make sure I get it right from the getgo..

thanks in advance..

 

[dabb]

I'll be watching this thread too. I have a project which will initially have about 12 million database records and am curious about the best way to structure it.

 

[unknowngiver]

I think mysql is better since tht is wt most of the pplz use....wait for wt other pplz have to say

 

[adam_uk]

there both amazing database engines, they are both data stores.

but i would go with what you know and what you can handle. you dont want to sling an application thats a production app onto a platform if you dont know it. if you have used php and mysql and know it fairly well stick with it. if you use mssql but are not sure what to do in an emgerancy it could be more costly in losses and earnings if you have an application down for an hour because you have no idea about what your doing.

mysql providing it has the right hardware and right configurations can throw out some amazing speeds and query results.

if you can get your queryes optimized, get the best hardware configuration you can then mysql imho will be perfectly fine.

with large databases you need to think about your hardware.

for large databases i would recomend a dedicated sql server, with scsi drives (raid 5 is a must!), as much ram as it will eat (4gb min), quad cpu (xeon) and a decent configuration of the software.

you then get a similar box (lower spec but not much lower) to act as the front end, your webserver. you put your scripts and images off this and then they access the other server via a tcp/ip connection. this speeds things up again because you have your queries processed on one server, the php scripting on another. then just mix the 2 and it distribues the load.

obviously there is cost. mysql is free. mssql is not and is licenced per processor. so if you use 4 cpus in a mssql server you pay for 4 licences (REMEMBER: each logical cpu you have is still classed as an extra cpu)

because mysql is popular and is free, chances are any problem you have it has happened to someone else before. quick google and your sorted. ive found mssql is a bit trickier with debugging problems and solving them. but thats just my experience.

i would recomend mysql, providing you have the correct hardware and configurations.

 

[ThreeD]

thanks for the reply adam I've been looking into things a little, and I'll definately go with Apache, just have to figure out what to use along with it..

I don't have the required hardware available yet, but that's not a problem as soon as I've made up my mind on what direction I want to go. You have some very good points that make me consider mysql more and more, also because I've used it before.