Newbie DBA - what do I order?
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Hello - I just received these details and was hoping I could get a fast answer or at least the questions I should be asking...
All internet traffic will be logged to ONE SQL cluster at a data center. Once the project is complete, the amount of data could reach 600-700Gb a month. Every agency will have the ability to run queries on their agencies internet use. I would expect 50 people could be running resource intensive queries at one time.
Do any of you know who would purchase the SQL licenses and what version of SQL I would need? I know I need SQL 2008 but do I need the enterprise version? Any recommendation for sizing of the hardware?
Thanks
Dave
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For that kind of volume, I'd go with Enterprise. Might need Datacenter if you need any of the specialized capabilities in there, but that's got more to do with scaling out than anything else, really.
The management options with Enterprise, in terms of backup options, online index rebuilds, etc., are why I'd go with that. Below that, in Standard, you're going to end up wishing you had some of the Enterprise tools.
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GSQUARED gave you a very good tip regarding the SQL version. Regarding the hardware, the first thing you should mention is what is your budget. According to your budget you can decide what hardware can you afford. 600- to 700 Gb a month is a lot, so don't go cheap on hardware.
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Be careful about buying SQL 2008 vs SQL 2008 R2.
In R2 Standard Edition Microsoft have limited the memory usage. In 2008 it was OS Maximum, but with 2008 R2 this was changed to 64GB for Standard and 2TB for Enterprise and OS Maximum for Datacentre.
See this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143685(v=SQL.105).aspx
We have at least one client who bought a grunty server with 128GB RAM only to find their SQL 2008 R2 Standard couldn't use it all.
Standard also only supports 4 CPUs (note this is sockets, not logical CPUs) vs 8 for Enterprise.
Cheers
Leo
Leo
Nothing in life is ever so complicated that with a little work it can't be made more complicated. -
I agree with what I've read here.
However, I have some pretty serious concerns. If you are a new DBA your first real project should not be one of this magnitude, 600-700GB/month is a huge undertaking. As a very senior DBA I would have some trepidation but have a lot of experience to fall back on, getting it right in the first pass is a must. I fully admit that I don't know your experience or knowledge beyond "Newbie DBA", but I think this might be too big for someone with that level of experience.
You need to keep in mind sheer amount of disk space required for just 1Yr of data is in the 7-9TB region, how long is the data going to be kept online? What is your archive strategy? Backup Strategy? Partitioning Strategy? Re-Indexing Strategy? Maintenance Strategy? What methods will you use to keep people out of others data? Is there going to be any PII? What encryption methods are you going to use to protect it?
Lots to think about.
CEWII
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The remaining question you asked is about who buys the license. It seems that you are aggregating data for clients and using your own app to interface with it. Licenses would typically be purchased by you / your company in this case. If you were to farm out servers for specific clients, you could push off licensing costs to them in some cases.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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Elliott Whitlow (7/19/2011)
I agree with what I've read here.However, I have some pretty serious concerns. If you are a new DBA your first real project should not be one of this magnitude, 600-700GB/month is a huge undertaking. As a very senior DBA I would have some trepidation but have a lot of experience to fall back on, getting it right in the first pass is a must. I fully admit that I don't know your experience or knowledge beyond "Newbie DBA", but I think this might be too big for someone with that level of experience.
You need to keep in mind sheer amount of disk space required for just 1Yr of data is in the 7-9TB region, how long is the data going to be kept online? What is your archive strategy? Backup Strategy? Partitioning Strategy? Re-Indexing Strategy? Maintenance Strategy? What methods will you use to keep people out of others data? Is there going to be any PII? What encryption methods are you going to use to protect it?
Lots to think about.
CEWII
Elliot made excellent questions, I will really like to know your answers.
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Thank you for all of the replies. I'm new to being a DBA but was a developer for about 10 years. But DBA is different
I'm not the only DBA, so I have someone else to fall back on and I'm not 100% clear what is my responsibility so I'm assuming the whole thing and will get help as I need it - most of the time it does not all fall on my shoulders though.
I summarized these posts below and will be learning a lot in the process.
Any more tips are appreciated.
Thanks
Dave
Data:
600-700Gb a month
50 users resource intensive
Hardware Sizing???
Reasons for Enterprise
- Volume
- management options (backup options, online index rebuilds
- with Standard you will end up wanting the Enterprise tools
Hardware:
What is budget? 600- to 700 Gb a month is a lot, so don't go cheap on hardware.
Be careful about buying SQL 2008 vs SQL 2008 R2.
In R2 Standard Edition Microsoft have limited the memory usage. In 2008 it was OS Maximum, but with 2008 R2 this was changed to 64GB for Standard and 2TB for Enterprise and OS Maximum for Datacentre.
This article displays version and memory usage:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143685(v=SQL.105).aspx
More advice:
You need to keep in mind sheer amount of disk space required for just 1Yr of data is in the 7-9TB region, how long is the data going to be kept online? What is your archive strategy? Backup Strategy? Partitioning Strategy? Re-Indexing Strategy? Maintenance Strategy? What methods will you use to keep people out of others data? Is there going to be any PII? What encryption methods are you going to use to protect it?
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