Solved: Recommended Hard Disk SIZE of SQL Server Database

Anonymous · ‎02-07-2022

Hi!

We are installing a Power BI Report Server and this requires a SQL Server Database linked to it. This is not the source database used to create the reports.

We would like to know some guidelines/recommendations/best practices on the hard disk size of this SQL Server Database beforehand.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Anonymous · ‎02-09-2022

Hi @Anonymous ,

The following memory and processor requirements apply to all editions of SQL Server:

Component	Requirement
Hard Disk	SQL Server requires a minimum of 6 GB of available hard-disk space.
Hard Disk	Disk space requirements will vary with the SQL Server components you install. For more information, see Hard Disk Space Requirements later in this article. For information on supported storage types for data files, see Storage Types for Data Files.
Monitor	SQL Server requires Super-VGA (800x600) or higher resolution monitor.
Internet	Internet functionality requires Internet access (fees may apply).
Memory *	Minimum:
	Express Editions: 512 MB All other editions: 1 GB
	Recommended:
	Express Editions: 1 GB All other editions: At least 4 GB and should be increased as database size increases to ensure optimal performance.
Processor Speed	Minimum: x64 Processor: 1.4 GHz
Processor Speed	Recommended: 2.0 GHz or faster
Processor Type	x64 Processor: AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon 64, Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T support, Intel Pentium IV with EM64T support

Note：

Installation of SQL Server is supported on x64 processors only. It is no longer supported on x86 processors.

For more information，you can review hardware and software installation requirements for SQL Server 2016 & 2017, SQL Server 2019 or SQL Server on Linux, as well as system configuration checks, and security considerations in Planning a SQL Server Installation

Hope it helps,

Community Support Team _ Caitlyn

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josef78 · ‎02-10-2022

Some minimal configuration recommendation can be found, but it is related to SQL instalation without user data.

If you asking about size of database with report data, it very depend on purpose of PBIRS.

If you are installing PBIRS primary for PBI reports in live connection mode (it means data will be on another server), or for direct query reports or paginated reports, you don need extra large hdd size for database (tens of GB can be enough, for definitions, metadata, logs, depend on usage and number of users)

But if you are installing PBIRS primary for PBI reports in import mode, then you need to know, that every imported data in PBI report will be stored in MSSQL server database, on this disk. It totaly depens how large PBI models you will have.

It's hard to calculate, because column compression is applied on source data, but if you know size of pbix files, you can multiply by x2.5 (for pbix blob, model blob, and blob during refresh). E.g. if you expect 100GB of pbix models, you need 250GB for catalog store, and some additional tens GB for other, like ExecutionLog.