[dba-SQLServer] One year free for SQL Server on AWS

[John W. Colby]

I did go look at AWS and it looks attractive.  However my databases 
don't fall in the range that the free would work.  It would be nice to 
know what they mean by "database".  As we know, to a SQL Server guy a 
database is a container with groups of tables dedicated to some thing.  
I have eight databases from which I export about 450 million records out 
to CSV files every month.  I export them into 500K record chunks 
(files).  I then move those files off to virtual machines for 
processing, and some time later, I import some small (1.5% on average) 
of the records back in.

So my needs are the databases themselves, which range from 10 gbytes up 
to 250 gbytes.  Storage for the files that are exported.  VMs to run the 
third party software.  And a SQL Server with 16 cores and 96 gigs RAM 
(my current server) to process these things.

And that is just the monthly processing.  I also do order processing 
where I create additional order databases, collect record subsets of 
various databases above joined together, exported / imported in the same 
manner, then CSV files exported and FTPed.

So is a database "any size"?  Do I have to attach them to the sql server 
instance and unattach them when done?  Or are the hourly rates somehow 
metered as the database itself is accessed?  Is an "I/O" defined as 
reading a record into memory from the disk? Updating a record back out 
on the disk?  If so what about the billion or so I/Os monthly?

It would be fascinating to discover what this really costs when all is 
said and done.  As well as how the actual performance would play out.  
And would I have to completely rewrite my c# application that I spent 
1.5 years developing?

I built a pair of servers, which actually have cost me about 20k across 
10 years. I use fairly "state of the art" SSDs in Raid 6 on dedicated 
raid controllers to hold the databases so that database access times are 
minimized etc.

The client pays $800 a month for co-location charges.  But they are my 
physical machines, and I have full use for as long as I want, all day 
every day if I so desire (I don't!).

I would dearly love to dump this whole mess out onto a cloud company 
somewhere but it just seems unlikely that it would end up being anywhere 
close to my current monthly expenses.

John W. Colby

On 3/19/2015 1:29 PM, Arthur Fuller wrote:
> For those looking to get started with SQL Server running on AWS, the first
> year is free. SQL Server on AWS
> <http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/getting-started-free-amazon-web-services-sql-server?utm_rid=CPMIN000017979328&utm_campaign=51653&utm_medium=email>
> .
>