Install MS SQL Server
- Chris Welford
- Samuel Kirby
- Anthony George
- Zoe Baldwin
On this page we state the minimum requirements for a SQL Server installation to support PhixFlow, and present a suggested installation.
The suggested installation incorporates the minimum requirements for SQL Server. It is suitable as an initial configuration for many instances of PhixFlow, but note that some of the options may need to change over time as the work carried out by PhixFlow increases.
Minimum requirements
The following the minimum requirements for a SQL Server installation to support PhixFlow.
Server settings
Option | Setting |
SQL Server Edition | Standard or Enterprise |
Version | |
Collation Character set | Latin1_General_100_CI_AI_SC_UTF8 The database that PhixFlow runs against must be created with the collation set to this character set (see Install the PhixFlow Database Schema), otherwise the performance of PhixFlow can be severely impacted. However, PhixFlow uses TEMP tables for efficient processing of ‘is in’ filter clauses with large numbers of parameters, and this uses the collation setting of the server itself. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the server is set to use this collation. |
Database settings
Parameter | Setting |
Collation | Latin1_General_100_CI_AI_SC_UTF8 |
READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT | ON |
Login and user
A command to create the database, along with a local (SQL Server) login, and associated user and user mapping, are provided in Install the PhixFlow Database Schema. If you do not wish to use this command, please consult PhixFlow Support.
Suggested configuration
The following configuration is suggested as a guide. It incorporates the minimum requirements for SQL Server databases above.
The provision of database files fits in with the scheme presented in MS SQL Server Planning for disk partitions on the database server.
Server settings
Option | Setting |
SQL Server Edition | Standard or Enterprise |
Version | |
Collation Character set | Latin1_General_100_CI_AI_SC_UTF8 |
Max Server Memory | Do not set a fixed maximum memory; see MS SQL Server planning |
Server Authentication | SQL Server and Windows Authentication Mode |
Database, login and user settings
Note that it is possible to use to authenticate PhixFlow against the database. This is especially useful on production servers where the number of people who can have access to key passwords is strongly controlled. However, for most instances, a local SQL Server login as below can be used.
The command given in will create a database, login and user with the suggested settings.
Filegroups
Name | Default | Autogrow All Files |
PhixFlow database | ||
PRIMARY | Yes | No |
Temp database | ||
PRIMARY | Yes | Yes |
Database Files
Logical Name | File Type | Filegroup | (Initial) size | Autogrowth/ Maxsize | Path (see ) | Filename |
PhixFlow database | ||||||
phixflow | ROWS Data | PRIMARY | 10,000 MB | By 1000MB, Unlimited | On Disk 1 - data files | phixflow.mdf |
phixflow_log | LOG | - | 1000 MB | By 64 MB, Unlimited | Disk 2 - transaction logs | phixflow_log.ldf |
Temp database | ||||||
temp | ROWS Data | PRIMARY | 1000 MB | By 64 MB, Unlimited | On Disk 3 - temp DB | tempdb.mdf |
temp_log | LOG | - | 100 MB | By 64 MB, Unlimited | Disk 2 - transaction logs | tempdb.ldf |