May 14, 2008 at 3:26 pm
As the Sr. SQL Server DBA I'm being told by our Sr. Network Admin that I need to consolidate all of my Maintenance plans to a central backup server. Basically removing all of the backup maintenance plans that I have created on each database server and re-create them as SSIS packages that sit on and run from this 1 centralized server.
Am I being stubborn or thick headed? This just doesn’t seem like best practice to me. His entire argument revolves around making it easier to manage so he doesn’t have to know 16 Different SQL Servers and only has to deal with one physical server in the event of my absence. I've tried to reason with him but he just spouts stuff about me giving up job security and making it easier for others. I think he’s just too lazy to open SSMS and register the different SQL Servers that he would need to connect to. It's not like he doesn’t have sufficient permissions.
May 14, 2008 at 3:44 pm
you are the DBA, he's the network admin, end of story. I would not let a network admin, or anyone else, any where near my backup jobs.
If its your responsibility 50 weeks of the year, you get to decide.
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May 14, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I would not do a configuration like this. I think that it will make things less robust.
1. Consider a short network outage, planned or unplanned. Then all your maintenance job would fail.
2. Consider a server crash of the central maintenance job server. Then all your maintenance jobs would fail and you would not get them up and running until the server is restored.
>His entire argument revolves around making it easier to manage so he doesn't have to know 16 Different SQL Servers and only has to deal with one physical server in the event of my absence.
If this is the argument then I would rather look at some 3:rd party software to centrally monitor your sql servers.
Ola Hallengren
May 15, 2008 at 5:11 am
It makes sense to keep running the backups locally to each server. Not only is it reliable but that way you have a weeks worth (or whatever retention period you choose) of backups on each local server for emergency restores. If your network guy then wants to copy these backup files to a central location that's fair enough but it should be an additional step to the backup regime, not a replacement solution.
cheers
May 15, 2008 at 7:31 am
beath,
I'm not talking about the placement of the backup files. I'm talking about the maintenance plans that I use to create the backup files. He wants me to do away with them and create SSIS packages that sit on and run from one server to handle all of the database backups.
I already played the single point of failure card and he claims he's going to have a hot standby copy of the new backup server ready to go incase it fails.
Anyone else here have any pro's and/or con's on this matter for me?
If his solution is superior to the way I'm doing things I don't have a problem changing. But I have yet to read in a book, online, or have anyone including him prove otherwise.
May 16, 2008 at 12:21 am
Based on the replies to this point, I would have to think that it should not make one difference how you perform the backups if they are going to stay local on the server itself.
If you want to manage everything from one server, then you can create an SSIs package to do that. However, you would have to piece out the package to allow for multiple threads for backing up multiple servers all at the same time.
My environment encompasses around 60 instances of SQL Server, and we have one backup SSIS/DTS package on each server that runs nightly. We could manage all of them from a central server, but we prefer to allow each server to run on its own schedule, some 6PM EST, some 9PM EST, etc.
It sounds ridiculous that a network admin would suggest what he suggested based on the scenario that if you wanted all of your instances to backup at the same time, creating a package to do that centrally would be a nuisance for you.
It sounded like he is pulling the files (if he is pulling the files) from each server anyway, so how you perform the backups should have no bearing on his operations.
Hope that helps!
Steve
May 16, 2008 at 8:48 am
Just my 2 cents but as Ola stated, you now would have a single point of failure and need to scramble to restart/create backup jobs elsewhere, whether another single machine or each of the individual machines, or wait for the network admin to rebuild the central server.
And based on Steve, if they stay local, what difference should it make to him (her?) how or where your backups occur? He still has to now where all the backup files are. The point is, backups do occur and are swept to tape. Ultimately, you, not the network admin, owns the data and are responsible for it. The network admins' responibility is to be sure to pick it up to tape and be able to restore it from tape so you can do your job.
And lastly, to me, it seems like a waste of a SQL license for a server to only run backups, although MS won't mind!
-- You can't be late until you show up.
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