How much free database space is required for optimum performance(say 30% vs

10%)?  How does it affect the performance (if it does)?



Any clarification would be appreciated.



Thanks,



sql_newbie

It depends on your database. You want to have your log file

sized so that it doesn't have to grow and has the space it

needs for the operations in your database. You want to

monitor your data files and when they need to be expanded,

increase the size at non-peak times. File growths/shrinks

consume a lot of resources.



-Sue



On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 06:45:48 GMT, "asd" <ads@fdsa.com>

wrote:



>How much free database space is required for optimum performance(say 30% vs

>10%)?  How does it affect the performance (if it does)?

>

>Any clarification would be appreciated.

>

>Thanks,

>

>sql_newbie

>

In addition to Sue's answers you need to ensure there is plenty of free

space for reindexing as well.  You need about 1.2 times in free space of the

size of a clustered index to properly reindex it.   The more free space you

have the better chances are that it will be rebuilt in a contiguous space in

the file.  There is no correct answer but it is always better to have too

much than too little free space.





--

Andrew J. Kelly  SQL MVP





"asd" <ads@fdsa.com> wrote in message

news:wWr2e.60331$xX3.23162@twister.socal.rr.com...  

> How much free database space is required for optimum performance(say 30%

> vs

> 10%)?  How does it affect the performance (if it does)?

>

> Any clarification would be appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> sql_newbie

>

>

Furthermore, on NTFS Drives, you'll want a minimum of 20% Free Disk Space.



Seems we ALWAYS forget that when spec'ing New hardware requests.







Greg Jackson

PDX, Oregon

Please correct me if I am wrong. If I manually do the maintenance

(reindexing , increase db size) say every end of the month or when the

indexes are too fragmented, as long as the db is not maxed out and the auto

grow does not kick in it would not really matter performance wise whether I

maintain free space of 3gb (10%) or 9 gb (30%). My database is 30 gb and

growing around 700 mb every month.



The reason for these question is I have plenty of diskspace available on my

production server, but on my backup sql server I have to maintain 3 copies

of the database. They are used for training , testing and reporting. The

diskspace is not yet maxed out but it is getting there. It is an old server

that it not worth adding more diskspace. In the meantime I had to make do of

what I've got until the old server is replaced.



Thanks for the replies



sql_newbie

"pdxJaxon" <GregoryAJackson@Hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:OgxBZkUNFHA.1528@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

> Furthermore, on NTFS Drives, you'll want a minimum of 20% Free Disk Space.

>

> Seems we ALWAYS forget that when spec'ing New hardware requests.

>

>

>

> Greg Jackson

> PDX, Oregon

>

>

NTFS Disks need free space to perform well. the rule of thumb I have seen is

20% to 30%





GAJ

Thanks,



sql_newbie



"pdxJaxon" <GregoryAJackson@Hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:OR6sd2XNFHA.164@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

> NTFS Disks need free space to perform well. the rule of thumb I have seen

is

> 20% to 30%

>

>

> GAJ

>

>