Not much information seems to be out there (that I could find) regarding having a large number of database catalogs per SQL server instance.
I know there is a limit of 32,767, and I am no where near that capacity. However, from the searching I have done, I do seem to using more than the average user. I have 4 SQL server instances, each hosting around 1,000 catalogs per instance (and growing).
My application serves up data for multiple clients and each client's data is separated into it's own catalog. Each catalog's schema is identical but the amount of data per catalog varies a lot. This solution has been great as far as security, administration, data migration, etc. However, I am wondering about any negative implications of doing this?
One thing that comes to mind that could be a potential pitfall is query plan caching. Looking at the query plan statistics, it looks as though SQL server (understandably) is caching query plans for identical queries on different catalogs separately. I wonder if highly used query plans are being cached for a shorter period of time to make room for the sheer number that need to be cached.
Just wondering if there is a best practice or any information available about using a large number of catalogs per SQL instance?
Thanks.