SharePoint 2010 new server farm with shared SQL Server

Question

Here is the situation I'm planning an upgrade from MOSS 2007 to MOSS 2010. My goal is to provision the minimum amount of new hardware. My Thought was to just setup new WFE's and re-use the existing SQL server (and same instance if possible) which is version 2008 (64-bit not R2). The rub is that I need to ensure the existing MOSS 2007 continues to operate while the new 2010 environment uses the same SQL server. The only snag I foresee is a potential conflict with default config database name (e.g. SharePoint_Config) while setting up new farm.

My Question is: are there any showstopper issues with two different MOSS environments using the same database server in this way? I'd also be interesting in any references that show this is a supported scenario with MOSS.

Answer 1

As long as you name your 2010 configuration database differently than your 2007 config db, you should be fine. In general, I'd recommend making an effort to name all the databases for your 2010 farm in a way that you can easily distinguish the databases for each farm.

Or, you could create a separate database instance on your SQL Server host and point your 2010 farm at that instance instead of the one that your 2007 farm is using. A new instance shouldn't have much of a performance hit on your SQL hardware, doesn't require more licensing, and keeps things separated pretty nicely.

John