SQL Server Performance Forum – Threads Archive

Configuration for VLDB

Hello Everybody, I am new to the forum and the DBA world as well ..so please excuse any redundant questions on my part. Well.. I need to give in writing the hardware configurations (the cpu/raid/RAM/..) for a VLDB of 450 GB size.How to start…? Also please throw some light on license issues.Company has about 200-300 users for dataabase Assume that company is ready to spend on the best configurations if really required.
Hire me!

Your question is tough to answer in a short post. You could write a book on this subject. So here are a few tips to get you started. 1) If you have not done so already, read the articles on this website. Makes for a good read in bed <img src=’/community/emoticons/emotion-1.gif’ alt=’

‘ />. 2) Do you need very high-availability, such as clustering? If so, then read the clustering articles on this site. Also, plan on getting a SAN for your cluster, both for fault tolerance and to handle the size of your database. When selecting clustering hardware, be sure it is all on the Microsoft Clustering HCL. 3) If you cluster, you will need Windows Server 2000 Enterprise and SQL Server 2000 Enterprise. If you will be only having named users, then per seat licensing will probably be your best bet. See your Microsoft Sales rep for licensing info as it can get very complicated, and it is often a moving target. Just these starting tips will take you several days or more to complete. That, and the other posts you will get, should get you started. —————————– Brad M. McGehee, MVP Webmaster SQL-Server-Performance.Com

You’re new to DBA and should advise on such a problem?
Not to sound combative, but the task might prove a little bit tough, I guess.
Anyway, at 450GB I wouldn’t consider this a VLDB at all. Pretty big, but nothing more.
What kind of database are we talking about? OLAP, OLTP? Mixture?
See if this helps:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/administration/2000/rosetta.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/plan/ssmsam.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/administration/2000/scalability.asp
http://www.vldb.org/
———————–
–Frank
http://www.insidesql.de
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As most of the topic is coverted by Brad & Frank, on the license part I would suggest to refer to Microsoft local support for correct answer and it depends on the application connection and usage. HTH Satya SKJ
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Forgot one link, which is probably the most interesting:
http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/About.aspx?n=AboutTech ———————–
–Frank
http://www.insidesql.de
———————–

i recommend that you consider the replacement cycle,
rather than buy a really expensive system that might last 4+ years,
think about the minimum necessary to get you through the next 2yr,
then replacing the main production server with a new system, rotating the previous system down.
the reason for this is the performance at a given price point increases substantially each year, making long term plans with this years system more expensive than necessary

If its going to be an active database with a lot of users and transactions, I would suggest to hire an experienced DBA. You could only be Junior to a senior DBA. I have seen many badly layed out db servers without much done on capacity planning side. It for sure runs into issues very soon. I dont want to discourage anyone here but the fact is that without solid understanding of database design, logical and physical requirements, its almost impossible to achive high performance (Contrary to microsoft claim that its now almost maintainance free). As Brad alluded, if its a high availibility (clustering) opportunity, I would suggest to look for a serious DBA. The really good ones are hard to find though.

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