I'd like some advise or case studdies on running multiple websites from one database.
I'm looking to use either MySQL or MS SQL.
At the moment i'm using individual Access Databse's for each of our sites, but now the sites are growing, i would like to centralise the data. The sites are e-commerce, but i will also be creating microsites which are fed from the one database.
Another requirement is to pull data from our local Sage MS SQL database to feed live stock control of the e-commerce sites.
How feasible is this? and what security issues should i be thinking about?
In short, i want to use a robust DB to serve our websites (we rent virtual hosting from a local company)but also pull data from our Sage databse which we host internally).
A bit of a tough one i reckon, but hope to get some helpful replies.

Thanks in advance
Andy

Will all the web servers access the database server using the same local network? If so then from the database perspective running multiple sites is much the same as running one site - it just means more connections to the database.

Creating a distributed solution with multiple servers at different locations could be a very different matter but I don't know if that's what you mean.

Thanks dportas
Yes, we have a virtual hosting package where the db and websites will be hosted.
Would there be any issues with the database locking? Are there limits to the number of site's i could have connecting to the DB?
I would still need to pull stock level data from our Sage software though and that is on our local server.
Not sure how that would work, but i'm researching it.

Thanks again

Andy

Hi...
Transferring data from your Sage software to MySQL can be very easy if tables structures are identical. Just try to export data from Sage to a data file in SQL format and import the file in MySQL.
About your other question, it's difficult to say anything knowing nothing of the user front end you want to use (PHP ? J2EE ? Access ? something else ?).
HTH...
Laurent

Considering that the SAGE data is going to remain internal, it is better from many points to PUSH the data from SAGE.

This will take care of security, (no need to let an external program come inside your company's perimeter), performance of sage, development cost.

End

Thanks guys -
Pyrophorus, I'm using Classic ASP, either MySQL or MS SQL (not decided yet), Windows 2008 Server.

AnanthaP, My Web Application will also need to write to the Sage DB to update the stock levels. We as a company use Sage for all sales administration so stock levels change continually.
Is this feasible, what security measures should be in place?

I appreciate your time...

Thanks Again
Andy

Hi !
Since you need two ways connections within your databases, maybe you should consider using MS SQL for both. Ask the right user forum, but I would be surprised if it were no built-in synchronization feature. It is certainly more difficult with MySQL.
ASP is totally unknown to me... Sorry...

Regards
Laurent