March 29, 2006 at 10:06 am
I am given an opportunity to design our company SQL SERVER DESIGN, I need some help on that.
Our company has two location.
MI and IL
Two location are connected with T1 line.
As of today we have one SQL Server in MI which holds around 20 databases, if this SQL Server fails, the only option is to get the data from Backup's.
Here's what I think
Two SQL SERVER one in MI and one in IL, and set up Mirroring with a witness server? But need to clear few question I have.
What's the requirement for witness server?
If I put mirror server in IL than what about the bandwidth?
How's repication compare to mirroring?
What If I put both mirror server in MI and Put a SQL SERVER in IL configure to do replication after hours with server in MI? And users can access server in IL locally (This sql server will have databases which are used mostly by IL user and will still replicate with Server in MI)
Help me make good decision, I might be wrong on what I think the designshould be?
March 30, 2006 at 4:51 am
Before you design anything, you need requirements.
What does the business require in terms of availability, data loss and recovery time? What are their disaster recovery plans (non-SQL)?
Next move to the infrastructure;
You have one SQL Server for the whole company?
What is the T1 line for?
What is the current utilization of the T1 link?
Next look at your server;
What applications does it serve?
What are the average and peak loads?
Are thick or thin clients used?
...and so on
There's a lot to know before a genuine answer can be issued.
March 30, 2006 at 6:20 am
As of today design is not good and I want to make it better and I am starting from scratch.
What does the business require in terms of availability, data loss and recovery time? What are their disaster recovery plans (non-SQL)?
There are many application data stored on SQL Server used both by internal user and clients.
Next move to the infrastructure;
You have one SQL Server for the whole company?
Right now only one sql server but, I want to change that and have atleas two with mirroring and may be one at other site which is replicator server.
What is the T1 line for?
As I explained above we have two location MI and IL and they both are connected with T1 line.
What is the current utilization of the T1 link?
Forest on both location trus each other and data transfer takes place through T1 link.
Next look at your server;
we only have around 15 small databases and asp and asp.net as front end. some of the data are used more by user in IL and I wanted to have one server physically sitting there and doing replication with server in MI and two server in MI replicates it's data to server in IL.
March 30, 2006 at 7:05 am
Perhaps my questions weren't clear;
What does the business require in terms of availability, data loss and recovery time?
--Are they happy losing a maximum on one hours worth of data? Are they happy to wait one day if the server explodes?
What are their disaster recovery plans (non-SQL)?
--If the building is blown up by terrorists, what do they do?
What is the T1 line for?
--Why was it installed?
What is the current utilization of the T1 link?
--a percentage utlization or bit rate answer please.
March 30, 2006 at 7:16 am
What does the business require in terms of availability, data loss and recovery time?
--Are they happy losing a maximum on one hours worth of data? Are they happy to wait one day if the server explodes? NO WE CANNOT BE DOWN AS OUR CLIENT ALSO USES THOSE DATABASES VIA ASP.NET FRONT END.
What are their disaster recovery plans (non-SQL)?
--If the building is blown up by terrorists, what do they do?
WE HAVE OFF SITE BACKUP RIGHT NOW BUT, I STILL WANT TO HAVE SERVER IN TWO LOCATION.
What is the T1 line for?
--Why was it installed?
USER IN MI ACCESS DATA FROM IL AND VICE VERSA.
What is the current utilization of the T1 link?
--a percentage utlization or bit rate answer please.
THIS WILL BE HARD FOR ME TO ANSWER. WE USE IT FOR MAY DIFFERENT REASON. FIRST THERE IS A TRUST BETWEEN TWO LOCATION, THEY COME THROUGH T1 FOR EXCHANGE EMAIL WHICH IS IN MI LOCATION. THEY HAVE SOME DATA STORED IN MI. BUT ALL THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE AS I AM RE-DESIGNING WHOLE NETWORK.
I WILL APPRECIATE IF YOU HELP ME OUT WITH THIS ANSWER I GAVE YOU. I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO SAVE FEW BUCKS ON LICENSES BY NO INSTALLING TOO MANY SERVERS.
ONE OF THE QUESTION I POSTED WAS TWO SERVER IN MI LOCATION CONFIGURED AS MIRROR SERVER, WHAT'S THE REQUIREMENT OF WITNESS SERVER FOR MIRROR?
IS IT ALSO POSSIBLE TO PUT A SERVER IN IL AND THAT SERVER STORES DATABASES USED BY LOCAL USERS SO THAT THEY DONT CROSS WAN (T1). AND CONFIGURE TO REPLICATE AFTER HOURS TO ONE OF THE MIRROR SERVER IN MI. AND VICE VERSA (DATABASES IN MI ARE REPLICATED TO SERVER IN IL)
OR
TWO MIRROR SERVER IN MI AND ONE SERVER IN IL JUST ACTING AS REPLICATOR SERVER WHICH COPIES ALL DATA FROM MI SERVER AFTER HOURS AND LOCAL USER USES SERVER IN MI FOR THEIR APPLICATION. AND CAN I INSTALL SQL EXPRESS FOR THE SERVER IN IL AS IT WILL BE STORING ONLY DATA AND ACTING AS REPLICATOR SERVER AND THIS WILL BE DISASTER RECOVERY SERVER ON TOP OF TWO MIRROR SERVER IN MI
March 30, 2006 at 7:25 am
Okay, well without knowing what dataloss and downtime your business will accept you cannot design an acceptable system.
Without knowing the utilization of the T1 line, or the traffic you will generate, it would be sheer folly to deploy a solution using it.
Stay with your offsite backups until you know more.
March 30, 2006 at 7:30 am
cannot have dataloss , user will not be happy with t.
T1(1.5Mbs) act a tunnel between two network.
we are gonig to redesign our network to make it one forest so T1 will be free for other use during work hours. we will set up file,database replication after hours between two location. Sql is also part of redesign.
you let me know the best option I should go with.
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