david.alcock (2/26/2013)
Just wanted to ask for confirmation really I read regarding a databases auto growth. Say if it is set to 10% and you experience a fair aount of growth during the day does the actual auto grow process have a noticable effect on system performance.
It can do, especially if the IO subsystem is overloaded and instant init is not on
Reason I ask is that I read once that it is not uncommon for admins to configue the size of a database to cover the growth and then shrink the db's out of wroking hours afterwards?
I hope that's not common, that's a horrid practice. Why shrink overnight (fragmenting indexes) just to grow the next day (probably getting file system fragmentation too). That's a major waste of resources and time.
Grow the DB to a sensible size, monitor free space, when free space drops below a comfortable threshold grow the DB again.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability