Hello everybody,
We choose the best version of MSSQL for a large scale Moodle installation. According to the Moodle 3.9 release notes (https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_3.9_release_notes) the recommended MSSQL version is the latest.Hi Howard,
Thanks for the answer. I totally agree with you, but choosing MSSQL is a requirement that we can't overcome.
--Roman
That wasn't really the world I was assuming, given OP said 1000+ online users. It may be that I am naive: at most, I managed full stack for an install of a few thousand students.
There are types of software I have come across (eg student management systems) where you do need to have a full time DBA who is an expert on the system. I didn't really think of Moodle falling in that category of software, until you hit the point where clustering is necessary.
If OP is not comfortable managing allowed to manage a MariaDB/PostgreSQL database server, another option would be to use a cloud service like Amazon RDS where management is done for you. Providing it's approved, of course. : )
Echoing what Howard says, the majority of support on these forums is for MySQL/MariaDB because that's what the majority of Moodle sites use. That's not to say that Moodle with SQL Server doesn't work well, just that you would need to be in a position to support this, either in-house or using an external supplier who has experience of this.
You're thinking logically, you've got to think like a middle-manager: little technical knowledge ("I have ten years' experience" == one years' experience nine years out of date), keeping your job safe and making absolutely no decisions that could lead to having to take any responsibility. In an organisation with a conservative adherence to Microsoft software, if you implement a system on MySQL/MariaDB and there's a glitch then fingers could be pointed: you were wrong to choose this other system. But if you implement it on SQL Server and the entire system became unusable, at least you made no decisions that could lay the blame at your door. And DBAs may be resistant to learning about different DBMSes (I have some sympathy with this). There are so many organisations with this kind of culture.
But, although we may frown at proprietary software, SQL Server does its job well and is widely used. So it's great that Moodle supports it. But this does require in-house willingness to support Moodle on SQL Server, rather than rely on these forums where most use MySQL/MariaDB. And if you can't do it, find someone with the skills and engage them. I get frustrated because SQL Server issues get posted here (an issue with backups in the post I linked to above and MDL-34744 which caused me a lot of headaches) but if we can't reproduce the issues then we can't assist.
But, yes, ideally Moodle on SQL Server needs to be supported by people capable of going from the Moodle source code, through the PHP drivers, to the SQL Server connection, and database itself. That's what I was trying to say in my first reply. And, yes, organisations that mandate specific platforms for what ever reasons don't necessarily consider this.
(I've rambled a bit I hope this is at least somewhat constructive).
