[AccessD] How does it work

John; just a note that may be unrelated but the government standard server
setup is:

One OS disk with SQL server installed and all applications.
One mirrored disk for a backup to the applications disk.
One 5 disk array; raid 5 which holds all the data and transactions files.

There is a company, in town that has been selling its' hardware systems as
raid 6. (Their loose description is not like that as describing the official
description of Raid 6 and if I can re-find their address I will send it
along.) It has the configuration as above as well as, but in the background
synchronizes multiple servers without software so there is no CPU impact.

Just a comment.
Jim  

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of JWColby
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:47 PM
To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com; 'Access Developers discussion and
problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] How does it work

I have now successfully created a Raid5 on my new server.  For the moment it
is a 4 disk array using 320g drives for a total size (available) of around
900g.  I will be adding another pair, one of which will be a hot spare,
which will bump it to 1.2g available and one drive just sitting there for
(automatic) use in a failure.  
 
My question now is, if I place all of the SQL Server database files (not the
program files, but the database files FOR SQL SERVER) as well as the actual
files for the various databases and their logs, if I place all that stuff
out on this mongo raid drive, and then my boot drive dies... can SQL Server
be installed to use an existing set of files?
 
I actually have one more SATA connector which I intend to use to copy an
image of the boot drive once a week or so (maybe even nightly), so that if
the boot drive dies I should be able to get back up with a minimum of pain.
For that I will need Ghost or something similar running as a scheduled task.
 
And then of course there is the issue of "what happens if the house burns
down".  How do you conveniently back up a large db offsite?  Or in a fire
safe?  I actually read about a rather expensive 
 
A while back I actually purchased this SQL Server backup program called
Imceda Litespeed (now sold I believe) which does a great job of backing up
large databases, compacting on the way out.  I am thinking about setting up
a small machine down in the basement at the far end of the house, on the
other end of a 1gbit line, and have Litespeed place the backup file on hard
disks on that machine.  Even at 10:1 compression which it seems to do, an
800gb database turns into an 80gb backup file.  Over a 1gbit line that will
take an hour to copy the backup file.
 
If you folks do this kind of stuff how about starting a discussion of how
you handle it.
 
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com
 
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