August 12, 2004 at 9:57 am
We are beginning a medical record imaging project. Due to the large quantity of data that will be stored in association with this system, the vendor is recommending we cluster the san for DR purposes. I currently work on a different system that runs two clustered servers with the SQL server data files on a SAN but in this new situation it would be one server running SQL server pointing two a clustered san holding the data files. I am having a little trouble wrapping my head around the recovery process if the lone server running SQL server is lost but the the data files on the SAN are fine. Would we actually have to do a restore on the possible terabyte worth of data or could those healthy files be reattached to a reinstalled/rebuild SQL server instance? Also could you run a clustered servers with SQL Server against a clustered SAN? Any direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Barb
August 13, 2004 at 2:06 am
You should be able to re-attach the database, if all is in order, and the files are identical.
There are a number of things to bear in mind though. Firstly, you need to ensure that the strategy is in place for the master database as well. Secondly, a clustered solution may not be ideal, since you may lose data if the files become unavailable (during a failover, for example) while your SQL Server instance is running.
I'd say the best thing you could do here is approach some vendors and see if they can set up a smaller-scale demo, as proof of concept. Also remember that this should probably only be one link in the DR chain. Backups are still important, since corrupt data being replicated to both sets of disks may mean that you are unable to use the failover strategy.
Regards,
ifx
August 13, 2004 at 3:32 am
A set of clustered servers can be connected to a clustered san with no problem. I am managing a cluster connected to a clustered san from HP (EVA).
Every machine has two connections, each connection is to the other san.
August 17, 2004 at 2:36 pm
are you referring to clustered SAN or multi-pathing. We run multi pathing software(Powerpath from EMC) with SQL server on our clustered servers without any issues.
In either case do consider that if you have a stand alone server and your server dies, irrespective of the files sitting on the disk, you will have lot of configuration involved in making that disk available to a new server.
Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply