SQL Server Express Support?

[Jeff Braunstein (test)]

It appears that SQL Server Express is not supported by Jira.  Apparently, it will work but warnings are displayed and support from Atlassian is not provided.

Why is SQL Server Express not a supported database platform?

[MattS]

I tend to look at it the other way around. Supporting a database takes effort to test. So any company would want to choose the databases that most of their present and future customers would use. I don't see many SQL Server Express databases in enterprise data centers.

The same concepts apply to why OSX is not a supported OS, even though much of JIRA is written on Macbook Pro laptops.

[Jeff Braunstein (test)]

I can understand that for enterprise customers.  

However, I would have to image that there are numerous smaller or younger companies that don't want to put out the expense for a standard SQL Server, Oracle etc.  SQL Server Express allows up to 10gb per database and works well for smaller environments.  Requiring a relatively expensive database platform increases the base cost of Jira considerably.  

Thoughts?

[AnnWorley]

My two cents: Smaller companies can use MySQL or PostgreSQL with JIRA if they want to save money on DBMS.

[Jeff Braunstein (test)]

True, but they may want to move to SQL Server Standard or Enterprise as they grow.  This would provide flexibility for budget, etc. They may also have SQL Server in their environment for other applications. 

Anway, I know there are other options.  I just don't understand any technical reason why it is not supported.  If there is a product positioning, marketing or other reason, I would just like to understand.

Thanks!

[MattS]

Cost of effort to test and support it I suspect, rather than a technical reason

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I don't think it's marketing or positioning, or even technical, just about reach and cost.  To fully support a database, Atlassian have to commit to fully testing the applications on it.   I suspect only a small amount of the user base is interested in MS SQL Server Express, so there's very little point in investing in support for it.

I'd be interested in the numbers though, especially to compare with how the rest of the world uses databases.

[Jeff Braunstein (test)]

I don't have any numbers but do see that SQL Server Express is used in third party applications quite a bit.  They use it and deploy their solutions with it to keep the cost of their solution to a minimum.  If they have customers with mid to large data or processing power needs, they step up to another version of SQL Server.

My guess is that your comment and Matt's comment above are correct and it is a testing issue.  However, I have never run into an issue running something on Standard or Enterprise that won't run on Express.  When I say that I'm taking about stored procedures/TSQL, etc.  I would doubt that their is anything in Jira that takes advantages of features not found in Express.  If JIira use SQL Server Agent or SSIS, that would not be available in Express.  I have not seen that it uses either of these capabilities as they would not be available in other database platforms.

[Sean_Wilson]

Although there's no doubt that supporting additional editions of SQL is a pain I have a feeling this is mainly excluded because of the database cache buffer memory limitation. 

Using SQL Express only allows for around 1GB of cache buffer memory which I'm guessing could lead to performance issues.

Here's a quote from an MS KB.

"Starting with SQL Server 2012, these memory limits are enforced only for the database cache (buffer pool). The rest of the caches in the SQL Server memory manager can use much more memory than is specified by these edition limits. For example, a SQL Server 2012 Express edition can use only a maximum size of 1.4 GB for its database cache. Other caches (such as the procedure cache, the metadata cache, and so on) can consume memory up to the size specified by the "max server memory" configuration."

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/2663912/memory-configuration-and-sizing-considerations-in-sql-server-2012-and