We are installing a Drobo to provide redundant external storage for an MsSQL database server.
Is there a particular Drobo approved procedure or drobo model we should be paying attention to?
Anyone with experiences trying this and have some advice?
drobo’s as a whole tend to suffer from poor performance with :
- lots of small writes
- simultaneous reads & writes
I’m not much of a mysql expert but i would have expected databases to be like this?
Let’s start w/ a list of std questions to get to know ur MSSQL environment:
Which version of SQL? Any chance of using 2008R2?
Which version of the Windows? 2008 or 2008R2?
What kind of server HW & DAS/SAN?
Ur current SQL backup/restore/HA/DR solution? Any chance BEWS or SCCM DPM?
We are using SQL 2008 - don’t think it’s R2 would have to remote in to find out and it’s during business hours.
Server 2008 NON R2 for OS
Server is running a local office high transaction rate MsSQL database, some front end software, TS Thin Clients x5, and providing non-domain home folder movement for 4 PC’s.
We have a license for BEWS that we can use.
The reason we are looking into Drobo as a solution aside from being a Registered Partner, is the server last week had a RAID 5 Failure on -count em- 2 disks out of 4. This resulted in only a few short hours of downtime as we were able to rebuild the system over the weekend and move a 36 hour old database backup to a separate system to act as DB server for a few days while we tried to do a database recovery. Sadly recovery of the transaction log file was unsuccessful and we lost 36 hours of data or in excess of 4,000 database records (huge rebuild still underway).
We’re trying to come up with a more fault tolerant solution aside from RAID 10 'ing the drives, and would like to see Drobo a part of this multiple layers of fault tolerance.
Interestingly, not only are we a Drobo owners/users/evangelists and Drobo Champs, but also an authorized partner as well.
The reason I asked those questions is by knowing more abt ur enviro. we can recommend the best-fit solution for you and that solution better be field-proven w/ the Drobo or I should say DroboPro and DroboElite.
I recommend AppAssure Replay4 for SQL. http://www.AppAssure.com.
Replay4 is a little known CDP (Continuous Data Protecction), HA/DR solution w/ in-process de-dup and compression + replication. We VSS all our servers w/ Replay4 and export daily to our vSphere 4.1 host.
Josephhand, a registered forum user here, works for AppAssure and he’s the spokeperson for all the training materials. Joseph has a Drobo or DroboS and I’m sure he’ll delighted to tell you more abt Replay4.
AppAssure has won many IT industries awards including MSSQL Magazines Editor’s Choice for Best Backup for MS-SQL.
Btw, I work for a VAD of AppAssure.
Replay will allow you to use the Drobo as a repository for the snapshots of your SQL server set to up to every 5 minutes if you like, enabling you to recover with minimal data loss, down to the row level. Take a look at the short videos that mention SQL on this site: http://www.appassure.com/demos/
joe
Wow, you are quick Joe! Looks like we’ll have another new partner for Lauren. How’s going? Busy working on verion 5 training materials NOW? We’ve been testing Replay Online w/ DroboElite and we hope we can launch it this month - at least beta. I’m sure Mr. scoyle7382 and his company can also make use of our Replay Online.
Thanks guys calling re: Replay now
U r most welcome … we can certainly exchange our experience, insights and/or expertise. Don’t forget to ask for a free Backup Hero T-shirt! Cuz I’m wearing one now. Almost forogt - the reason why I asked whether u r on SQL2K8R2 is becos we are also experimenting SQL 2008 FileStream/RBS and StoragePoint onto the DroboElite. Yup, we are doing some interesting or exciting things w/ our DroboPros/DroboElite. Have fun w/ Replay 