Question

What are the limitations of MS SQL Server Express?

Answer 1

 

Today I hit this error:

Could not allocate space for object '<object_name>' in database '<database_name>' because the 'PRIMARY' filegroup is full. Create disk space by deleting unneeded files, dropping objects in the filegroup, adding additional files to the filegroup, or setting autogrowth on for existing files in the filegroup.

The most likely cause is using MS SQL Server Express editions without knowledge of it limitations.  So here is a summary.

• Maximum database size of 10 GB per database in SQL Server 2012, and 2008 R2 Express^[1] (4 GB for SQL Server Express 2005 and earlier; compared to 2 GB in the former MSDE). The limit applies per database (log files excluded); but in some scenarios users can access more data through the use of multiple interconnected databases.^{[citation needed]}
• No SQL Server Agent service^[2][3]
• Hardware-utilization limits:
  • Single physical CPU, but multiple cores allowable^[4]
  • 1 GB of RAM (runs on a system with any RAM amount, but uses only at most 1 GB)

 

Here are the references used for the above:

Error link:

http://www.outsystems.com/forums/discussion/9539/sql-server-database-error-primary-filegroup-is-full/

Limitatoin links:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1169634/limitations-of-sql-server-express

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Server_Express