<p>What is the optimal number of connections that can be open on a SQL Server 2000 DB. I know in the previous company I was working for, on a tru 64 box with Oracle 8i, 8 processor machine we'd figured out that 8*12= 96 connections seemed to be a good number. Is there any such calc for SQL Server 2000. The DB runs on a 2-processor(hyper threaded 4) machine. There are a lot of transactions that run against the DB. The reason I ask is because we have an app that typically tends to leave around 100 connections open even if it is not doing anything and I am having difficulty explaining that that might be a cause for our performance issues. Maybe, SQL Server does not have such a limitation... Can any of you pour forth some wisdom on this? Much appreciate it. Thanks,</p>

<p>I should add it is the Standard Edition. </p>

This blog post on MSDN indicates there is no limit - at least in the Express editions:
http://blogs.msdn.com/euanga/archive/2006/03/09/545576.aspx
And this indicates that it might be 256, for lite editions -
http://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/archive/2006/04/10/SqlEverywhereInfo.aspx
This also shows no limit:
http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/TechOff/169030-The-difference-between-SQL-Server-2005-Express-and-Developer-Edition/?CommentID=299642
addition
- from a comment,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa196730(SQL.80).aspx
indicates the max is 32767, while there is no "ideal"