SQL Hardware Setup | SQL Server Performance Forums

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SQL Hardware Setup

I am looking for some advice on setting up a new SQL 2000 Std server. We need to move various SQL databases into 1 server and I am not sure how to do this. Here is what we have to work with. 1-HP 3.4Xeon Server with 2GB memory and 4X72GB drives. This is attached to an HP1000 SAN with 8 72GB Drives connected via Fiber HBA. We do not have the $ to do a cluster so this will have to be non clustered. We are asked to move our fund raising, Sharepoint and MS Project databases to this server. CAn this be done? If so, what would be the best way to setup the hardware? What Raid configs? This is new stuff to me and I have no idea of how to proceed. Any advice would be great. Thanks
Sounds like the jobs being done backwards as usual! <img src=’/community/emoticons/emotion-1.gif’ alt=’:)‘ /><br /><br />First of all the requirements need to be determined – an explicit list of services and applications, the uptime required, acceptable data loss and recovery times, future capacity requirements etc. THEN you get the hardware to meet those needs.<br /><br />However, to cut to the chase you need to know the stats of the databases you need to move – volumes, historical growth, data sensitivy.<br /><br />My first approach would be to have a seperate sql server instance per application database for securities sake, but I notice you have a single standard license.<br />You don’t need to worry about RAID as the SAN should handle optimising performance and failure issues.
Thanks for the reply but the hardware already existed, we are just making use of it. We are non-profit org that can’t spend the hard $ on fancy hardware or consultants, but would like to make use of our equipment as best we can.
I am not sure what you mean by stats of databases. How can I determine this? Also you mentioned seperate sql instance. What is this? Is this multiple installs of SQL on the same server? Given the hardware I listed and assuming a 10% growth per year of each database would I need to purchase a different version of SQL to do this and what would be the best way to install the multiple apps? Thanks for all your help.

quote:Originally posted by pirinoe
I am not sure what you mean by stats of databases. How can I determine this?

To design a solution you need to know somethings about the database, for example and for each application; Disk capacity: Current database size, projected future requirements based on previous growth and estimates from the business
Application responsiveness: What are the most costly and most frequently used queries (ask application support, and run traces to capture sample workloads)
Processor/Memory utilization: How much of the current servers resources are used by the databases, again get historic information and determine whether the ew server can handle it. Sum up these stats from each app and see whether your esrver can handle it. If it can’t and you still have to work with what you’ve got, this information let’s you inform the business authoritatively that there will be unsatisfactory performance on the server.
quote:Originally posted by pirinoeAlso you mentioned seperate sql instance. What is this? Is this multiple installs of SQL on the same server?

Yes.
quote:Originally posted by pirinoe
Given the hardware I listed and assuming a 10% growth per year of each database would I need to purchase a different version of SQL to do this and what would be the best way to install the multiple apps? Thanks for all your help.

We can’t come to a capacity prediction until we know what we need, and regarding licensing, Enterprise edition allows for multiple instances without further licensing, but Standard would require additional licenses.
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