There are a whole host of questions that come to my mind which would guide answers, and ultimately your own.
- Are you needing to search through the data at a later point, if not, why is it being logged? If you do, is the quantity or type of searches suitable for a flat file.
- Are the data quantities small, and the database is a premature optimization, or are you going to be storing a lot of log data?
- What backup / DR / Restore SLA are you going to be working under, if you have none and never intend backing the file up or protecting it, e.g. its informational at best then a file may be fine, but if you have to ensure the data is safe and a point in time recovery is achiveable then you need to look at an alternative to a flat file.
- Is the data small now, but will scale / get larger over time? making the choice of a file for a short term solution, can really damage you on the longer term.
There is no one solution, a DB might prematurly optimising, but equally could be very valid.
A.
