Estimating space usage
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I will be collecting data every quarter from clients. How can I estimate the size the database will get. I am looking for disk space usage calculations. Is there a reference book to help with this?
Thank you in advance.
cwiney
cwiney -
I'm working on an article next week about this actually. It'll be up on Monday. If you have a general idea about how many records you'll be receiving each business week, you can use Erwin (CA) or any volumetric program to determine this. Don't forget that every key and index requires space as well.
Brian Knight
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bknight
Brian Knight
Free SQL Server Training Webinars -
Thank you for your quick response. I will read your article next week.
cwiney
cwiney -
I've got ERwin and have no clue how to use it. I though it just did schema layouts easyer for you.
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quote:
I've got ERwin and have no clue how to use it. I though it just did schema layouts easyer for you.ERwin has a volumetric tool built into it. I've been using this since version 3.x + and it's very accurate. You can then use the volumetric tool to generate reports on how much space you'll need x number of months out. When you define each table, you can define how much growth you anticipate monthly. The report then shows you down to the index how much space you'll need any number of months out. It will even let you define what percentage of NULLS you expect in each column. ERwin hasn't paid me to say any of this...I just think it's cool and saves me time so I can do the things in life I enjoy...like hide under my desk.
Brian Knight
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bknight
Brian Knight
Free SQL Server Training Webinars -
cool. I guess I need to get off my ass and read the manuals and use it 🙂
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quote:
cool. I guess I need to get off my ass and read the manuals and use it 🙂Hey budy! Men don't use manuals...they fumble with it until you get it to work....or drop-kick the machine.
Brian Knight
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bknight
Brian Knight
Free SQL Server Training Webinars -
quote:
Hey budy! Men don't use manuals...they fumble with it until you get it to work....or drop-kick the machine.Brian Knight
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bknight
Hey Brian,
Change that to "Real DBAS" don't use manuals, and I'm with you...
Robin
Robin Abramson
SQL Server DBA
salesnet.com
rabramson@salesnet.com -
Brian,
I appreciate your article on this topic. Unfortunately, my boss thinks that the only way to estimate this is the long tedious way by hand. If you could give me a hint on the methods of finding index sizes, foreign keys and constraints, I would truly appreciate it. Thank You Christine
cwiney
cwiney -
You can get the sizes for most datatypes, etc. from BOL or use INSIDE SQL Server by Kalen Delaney. It's a great reference.
The hardest part will be estimating growth. Get this done before you even start to look at sizes.
Be sure you then add some fudge factor to your calcs to allow for mistakes. Also allow for disk backup.
Steve Jones
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Several days worth of disk backup if you can. That way if the tape backup job fails you still have it.
Andy
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