REPEATABLE READ

Despite how great MSDE is, I find myself constantly forgetting just what exactly its limitations are. So, without further ado, MSDE Facts:

N A M E
When initially released, MSDE stood for Microsoft Data Engine - back in the days when it was SQL Server 7.0 based. Now, MSDE stands for Microsoft Desktop Engine, or, more precicely: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) -- which is what the facts detail.

P H Y S I C A L   C A P A C I T I E S / L I M I T A T I O N S
Max Supported Processors: 2 (all applicable OSes, except Win 98/XP which only allows 1 proc)
Total Supported RAM: 2 GB (all applicable OSes)
Max Database Size: 2 GB
Max Number of Connections: 32,767 (just like non MSDE versions)
Max Number of Databases: 32,767 (just like non MSDE versions)
Max Number of Files per Database: 32,767 (ditto)
Max Number of Objects Per Database: 2,147,483,647 (ditto)

F U N C T I O N A L   L I M I T A T I O N S
Allowed: Multiple Instances of MSDE per physical box (up to 16 instances, just like 'normal' SQL Server).
Not Supported: Failover Clustering, Log Shipping, Parallel DBCC, Parallel Create Index, Enhanced Read Ahead and Scan, Indexed Views, Federated Databases, SAN Support, GUI Tools, Full Text Search, and SQL Mail

R E P L I C A T I O N
MSDEcan participate in all forms of Replication, though they can only be subscribers (including updating subscribers) in Transactional Replication. A big key though, is that Microsoft says that MSDE requires CALs to participate in Replication, so make sure you address this issue if needed.

A N A L Y S I S   S E R V I C E S   F U N C T I O N A L I T Y
MSDE doesn't support ANY Analysis Services functionality.

O T H E R   F U N C T I O N A L I T Y
Supported: Limited DTS Suport - (Deployment Only)
Not Supported: Data Mining, English Query

Q U E R Y   G O V E R N O R
In addition to the above capacities and limitiations, MSDE has the infamous Workload Governor. There are lots of misconceptions about this beast, and I'll cover them in the next post. For now, there are two KEY things to remember about the Workload Governor:
1) It doesn't limit connections.
2) It limits the number of concurrent batches. So, if too much WORK is done on the server instance, the Workload Governor imposes a small penalty. The beauty is that the penalty is so small that for smaller applications and work loads it is barely noticeable. But for larger applications that really need to scale, it imposes quite a hit.

S O U R C E S
More on specifications, limitations, and the likes can be found at the following Microsoft Links:
Features / Functionality by Edition: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/architec/8_ar_ts_1cdv.asp
SQL Server Capacities (check the footnotes): http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/architec/8_ar_ts_8dbn.asp
An almost useless link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/addins/msde/examining.aspx

U P   N E X T :
Microsoft SQL Server Personal Facts..