Setting up a SAN for SQL Server

  • I used to have a white paper that described how/why of setting up a SAN that would have SQL Server databases and other things on it for best SQL performance - does anyone know where I can get it or any other documentation on the subject?

  • I use a book written by Allan Hirt, Cathan Cook, Kimberly Tripp and Frank McBath: "SQL Server 2000 High Availability".

  • Another good source to augment your knowledge would be white papers and case studies from SAN vendors. I use the plural form of vendors specifically. Do not just use your just SAN vendor's information use their competitions as well. It will give you a more well rounded knowledgebase. Additionally more then one source (EMC, Hitachi, DELL) will help you in weeding out each vendor's hype and get to the 'real' information that you need.

    RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."

  • Hi John,

    might be worth looking at this MS WebCast :  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895614

    Found it very useful for setting up our SANs. We know that what David G Brown suggested has worked because, for virtually identical systems except for SAN disk layout, one of our partners has had performance issues when we didn't. Our partner's approach was to create large array groups mapped to MetaLUNs and then carve out the logical drive-space as required from the large physical volumes. Some LUNs were shared across the same physical arrays. We took a different approach, carving out dedicated LUNs/MetaLUNs based on I/O and throughput requirements, similar to what most do in a DAS environment. We only use RAID 10 (no RAID 5). No LUNs had to share array sets, they were all dedicated.

    It should be noted that performance was and is a critical factor for our business, hence why we went to such lengths. It is also worth noting that our SAN vendor, in the early days, recommended the route our partners took and also recommended RAID 5. Both of which they now accept would have resulted in poor performance for us; and we DBAs are regularly consulted on what setup we wish to have.

    HTH

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