Well, it depends on a lot of parameters. A short answer is: use bogus data to test your setup. Test it to its limits, and find out where you can expect problems.

What kind of limits can you think of?

  1. Size limits. Maybe 'more' hardware can help out. Maybe you can compress the data with gzlib or the like.
  2. Speed limits. Maybe 'more' hardware as well. Maybe a migration to another DB system might help (BerkeleyDB did wonders for me).
  3. Usability limits. Think about multiple users accessing at the same time. BerkeleyDB or file locking scemes can help.

RDMBS like oracle/mysql have the tendency to solve problems at all three levels.....

Hope this helps,

Jeroen
"We are not alone"(FZ)

In reply to Re: When is a flat file DB not enough? by jeroenes
in thread When is a flat file DB not enough? by TrinityInfinity

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