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 Databses files on SAN

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Peter99
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

498 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-31 : 13:15:36
Our databases files (mdf and ldf) are on SAN drives in cluster environment. We are planning to build standalone computers instead of cluster. After disaster Wintel team will rebuild/recover windows servers. They will restore everything on local drive from netbackup except SAN drives. We have large dbs around 100GB+. If we restore through netbackup it will take days.

Is there any option after installing new sql server instance on new server we can just attach db files (user databases and msdb) from SAN instead of restoring from netbackup? I am thinking after disaster these files are not in consistent state and may not be available for attach.

Thanks

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-31 : 13:30:24
quote:

I am thinking after disaster these files are not in consistent state and may not be available for attach.



You are correct. Do not rely on your mdf/ldf file backups. In fact, don't even bother backing them up as it's a waste of time.

If your NetBackup restore will take days to restore 100GB+ sized databases, then you've got serious infrastructure issues.

How about doing SQL backups to disk, and using those for restores? For your standalone environment, how about mirroring to that server and you don't even need to worry about restores?

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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Peter99
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

498 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-31 : 14:02:27
Thanks Tara for reply.
This is actually production cluster. Actual database files are on SAN Drives, SQL installed on local drive. Backup team takes backup of these database on netbackup server. Since databases actual files (mdf and ndf ...) are on SAN Drive. If I can access those files then I can attach on new server.
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-31 : 14:04:50
You still must rely on your backups and not on those database files. Whether or not you can attach mdf/ldf files that were from a system where the service was in a running state is really hit and miss. Rely on your backups.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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Peter99
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

498 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-31 : 17:31:26
Thanks Tara for your help.
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2011-03-31 : 17:37:40
You're welcome, glad to help.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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jackv
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

2179 Posts

Posted - 2011-04-02 : 05:54:16
I agree that in a disaster situation - you must rely on backups. RPO should have already been decided with application owners - and the backup strategy should reflect the RPO. But in a PLANNED rebuild - and if database files are on SAN - you could rebuild SQL Server with same drive profile - restore the system databases - and then reattach the drives . As long as it's planned out OK - then this works . Very useful if you are dealing with terabytes of data.

Jack Vamvas
--------------------
http://www.sqlserver-dba.com
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2011-04-02 : 12:10:08
Agreed. It's a different situation though as your SQL service is either down or the databases are detached, so those files are ready to go. In the DR scenario, the service was almost certainly up at the time of the event.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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