We have a single lane POS with a well powered Dual core CPU, 4GB RAM machine for POS and 5 other computers running management module. If the database is kept local to the POS, everything runs flawlessly. If we move the DB off to a dedicated SQL server (8 GB RAM, 8 core with an HBA card pointing to a NAS) where several other DB reside, things run well in general, however there are occational lockups and error messages thrown in POS and the management module every day. Our network leverages a Gigabit backbone and FastEthernet on the edge and a sniffer doesn't reveal much in terms of network bottlenecks- and no other apps or users complain about performance. Netflow also shows minimal network link utilization.
The issue appears to be in the SQL machine. It's running 64 bit Server 2K3 and 64 bit SQL Server 2005. Again, this machine is loafing along much of the time with other databases and the POS DB is very small (30 MB). Aside from FB backup snapshots taking up quite a lot of RAM at points of the day, the server should be able to shoulder the load, in my opinion.
Does anyone else have issues running POS DB on a SQL server (even if network and server are well powered), yet having the DB reside on a local POS yield smooth operation?