What would you do in my case? Please help!

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What would you do in my case? Please help!

Tejwant Kaur-333539

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Points: 1647
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August 16, 2006 at 11:47 pm

#62103

Hi Everyone,
I really really need some help,advice, because I am getting very frustrated.
Actually, we are moving to SAN, and I need to prepare 2 new production servers with SQL server setup by the coming Thursday. On top of that we want to set up 1 of the servers as Clustered server, so that when the second node is ready, there is not much downtime to put it into production. The databases will be moved later to these boxes.
Now, I had my plan to test the move to SAN. Also, to test and retest clustered servers, as I have never clustered a server before, or even seen how it behaves. I asked management to get me the test boxes on 20/6/06. And I haven't got my boxes yet . They told me that my boxes will be coming on the 31st of August, we are supposed to go live (with all testing, all implemenation, load testing) by the 15th of September. They are not ready to push the date forward. I only have the 2 Production servers, and even for those the Sys admin team doesn't have time to spare for me, as they are busy movinf exchange, adding AD etc to the network.
I think this is pushing too much, and I'm afraid that I will not be able to do a good job - with no testing. What do you recommend? What should I do? Should I not cluster now, as its a whole new ball game? But If I have to cluster them later, am I not going to risk the production server which will be live then?
What would you do in my scenario?
Thanks heaps in advance.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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John Mitchell-245523 SSC Guru Points: 148809 More actions · Answer 1

I would say you can't do it in that timeframe. But then you knew that anyway. Management is going to have to decide whether the postpone the live date or go live with an untested system.

If you're worried about your lack of clustering experience, you can go live with an unclustered server, build and test the cluster offline and then migrate your live databases on to the cluster. I wouldn't try to build a cluster until you have all the hardware... so I recommend that you wait until both nodes are ready.

A clustered server requires more buy-in from your sys admin team since you will need more IP addresses, NetBIOS names, domain accounts and possibly complex firewall rules setting up.

Hope that helps

John

mngong SSCertifiable Points: 6167 More actions · Answer 2

Make them understand you cannot cluster now and will like to test before you set up clustering.If they believe you are familiar with clusters and should be able to set it up ,let them know you are a bit uncomfortable getting into this one and need time to test it out.

Not sure you want to start a job you are almost certain will fail

cross DBA Old Hand Points: 319 More actions · Answer 3

Don't do it!!!.

Don't make any changes to a production database UNTIL you (and others)have throughly tested the impact.

Hardware config & network changes especially need carefull support from sys admin and will also need testing.

When you do make the change - do it in two descrete stages a) migration. b) clustering.

HAVE A BACK OUT STRATEGY in case you need to revert to original settings.

You need two things:

a) time to test.

b) hardware to test on (this should be same spec as production hardware).

If management don't give sufficient time/money for testing, the data and the network topology could become badly screwed up - with lots of downtime and very late nights.

If all goes wrong with data and topology you, as DBA, will get the blame. Put this in writing to management.

Don't forget you are the DBA - tell them this change will NOT be done till testing is satisfactory. Work out a realistic testing timetable, devise a test plan then tell them how long it will take. Point out that if the data is corrupted/lost or if there is too much downtime - their business will suffer.

Tejwant Kaur-333539 SSCommitted Points: 1647 More actions · Answer 4

Thanks for your input Guys. I am going to talk to my manager this morning.

How long do you think would it take you to test the following thorougly?

Set up clusters and test them, failover, bringing failed server back up.
Setup and install SQL server and SP4
Move 2 huge databases to a new server. These databases are 400 GB, and can't be backed up, as there is not enough room on the old server to do so. So, I was thinking to detach, copy and attach.
Other databases (4 more) to be moved can be backed up and restored easily.
Load Testing.

Thanks again guys.

John Mitchell-245523 SSC Guru Points: 148809 More actions · Answer 5

Impossible to give a meaningful answer, but here's a guess:

1. 2 days

2. half a day

3. 1 - 2 days

4. 2 hours

5. 1 week (plus planning)

You can back your large databases up. Make sure SQL Server starts under a domain account and back them up to the new server. Truncate the log first to mimimise the size of the backup file. Even if you don't have enough room on the new server for the backup and the data files themselves, you can back up the disk dump to tape and then delete it. That way, if you have any problems with re-attaching the database files, you have a backup to fall back on. (By the way, are you not backing up this database already?)

John

Tejwant Kaur-333539 SSCommitted Points: 1647 More actions · Answer 6

Thanks Guys, I don't know what I would've had done without your help.

Now my boxes have arrived, and the I've started testing, but I have left clustering for later, as management couldn't provide exact replica of the production environment to me.

And John, yep, you guessed it right! This is a brand new data warehouse. The Box Development team used to perform UAT on does not have enough DAS. Another reason why we are moving to SAN.

Thanks again Guys.