Retrieve archived data MSSQL database has previously been archived on another database. Approximately 70m rows (includes sales information.)

Now, I am asked to move this archived data to live database. Because, customer can't see order history older the 3 years.

Is it reasonable to do this? I think it will be slow. Are there other solutions?


Live DB size : 250GB
Archive DB size : 50GB
CPU : 8 Core
Memory : 64GB
Version : Microsoft SQL Server 2016 (SP1)
If there's no duplicate data to worry about, adding another 50 GB of data to a 250 GB database is not going to matter much, especially since the business requirements need the archived data in the live database.

Make sure you have good covering indexes. Perhaps you can import the historic data into a separate filegroup and then mark it as read-only. Perhaps you could use a table partition.

There are lots of options to think of. @AMG's answer covers some more business-related questions for your ongoing SLA as well.