Putting system Databases on the same drive with the other databases

  • We have a Cluster environments and nodes(2) are SQL SERVER 2008 R2 and 2 Disk(One for Data files and one for Log Files) have been dedicated to each node.Is it good idea to put System Databases and the other databases on the same drive?Or is it better to put System Databases on the other drive(Log Drive)?Does Adding a new drive dedicated to System Databases help the performance?

  • Adding a new drive with its own IO controller for TempDB will help with IO bottlenecks. Keep in mind that TempDB is used heavily from 2005 to 2008.

    -Roy

  • On another note, you should have Log files should be on separate drive as well. The log files it is mostly sequential writes but data files are random.

    -Roy

  • I am assuming these are san drive, if so, you will also need to confirm that each drive has separate spindles, if it is just a logical separation of a lun with the same spindle then splitting out stuff won't do much.

    Andrew

  • Don't throw the system databases onto the log drive, you're just begging for trouble that way. If you wanted to get really intense about it, each log should have a separate physical spindle set.

    As mentioned above, drives <> physical disks. The physical disks, and raid controllers, are the key here. If you're not on separate pieces of hardware, all the drive optimization in the world can't save you, at least not from where you can control it.

    I personally would try to get tempdb onto a unique logical drive, at the least though, so if it decides to bloat it doesn't screw up anything else when it goes haywire. Why does it bloat? Bad coding, huge datapumps, any number of reasons. Point is it can, and a little separation there can save you some headaches.

    MSDB/MODEL/MASTER/RESOURCE on the same drive as the rest of your data probably won't hurt much. It's not optimal, but you're not going to be able to get separate unique spindles for each database anyway, so it won't hurt really, either.


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  • What are the sizes of your user database files (mdf, ldf)?

    Depending on the size, some of the earlier suggestions may not help much. And, depending on the size, they may help to a very great extent.

    Wayne
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
    Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes


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