Large MS SQL deployments

zetec452

zetec452

zetec452

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Joined
15 Sep 2003
Posts
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Hey,

Any of you pros here installed any large MS SQL deployments. I'm thinking in the region of 2TB databases.

On paper MS SQL meets requirements but in the real world (and the company I work for) Oracle is king and hugely more expensive.

Any tips, instances advice appreciated.

TIA.

J
 
2tb really isnt a big deal tbh. The biggest we've deployed has been 40tb. Not sure I can give you any specific advice beyond the usual RDBMS stuff like DB design, testing and perfomance tuning.

What type of system is it?
 
40TB is pretty large indeed. How many servers did you use for 40TB? I must admit I considered 2TB large enough. :p. Are you a DB consultant?

I'm not responsible for the usual RDBMS stuff. Just looking around for competitive ideas. As an Oracle shop we are a little concerned with going for a completely different DB.
 
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I wouldnt be all that concerned about SQL; its pretty good nowadays from 2005 onwards. That 40tb database is actually a single table (the whole system is about 20% bigger than 40tb) running on something like 60 SQL boxes with 2 SAN's so its a massive investment. The reason for so many boxes isnt load, its redundancy. Each component is clustered, and each cluster is mirrored across two locations.

Im not a DB consultant, but I work in a software company which has a microsoft technology stack. The implementation above was to a very large retail customer. It was such a big deal at the time we spent 6 weeks with microsoft CAT team in redmond perfomance tuning the app and SQL to ensure it all worked properly at scale. The biggest takeaways from that exposure was DB design and architecture; followed up with tweaking windows and SQL.
 
We've deployed fairly large MSSQL installs too, particularly with the later versions - 2008 is a reliable platform. I believe our converged business database is something like 10TB (everything is in there) running on a couple of dozen R910s with a Netapp backend. I can't tell you much beyond that, it's not my area and I don't have the time to poke my nose in anymore but it's reliable and the systems it feeds don't spend much time waiting on it.
 
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