SQL Server Advanced Protection

Defending your SQL databases can mean saving thousands for your company in terms of ensuring productivity, meeting regulation requirements, & stopping downtime & information loss. Here are a few tips & tricks to make positive that your SQL databases are deployed correctly & available when the information is necessary most.

In addition to the information itself, a SQL server includes the transaction log as well as the method databases. Both must be carefully protected if the application is going to be smoothly restored.

Watch Your Workloads Around Backup Windows

SQL backups can be performed while users are actively querying the database & transactions are being processed. SQL backups utilize plenty of method resources, I/O, so it is best to perform intensive, full backups when the method is experiencing light load times.

Shorten Information Backups

If overall performance is suffering due to long backup windows, several measures can be taken to reduce the time that the method is performing a backup. way to shorten is to backup to disk. In the event you are backing up to disk before offloading to another backup method, take care to not backup to the same disk that is used to store the database or transaction.

Copying the database to a separate array can prevent I/O overload as well as make positive the database is available in the event of a primary method failure.

Use Different Backup Methods

SQL server offers different backup methods-full, differential, & transaction backups. There is built in to the SQL server. Choosing the backup method depends largely on your surroundings. Specifically, it depends on how giant the database it is & how critical the database is to your business. Full backups can weigh down your servers & storage systems, so plan carefully how often you need to perform a full backup versus differential or transactional backups. Small databases that are not giant & fine-tune infrequently can be backed up only every day or every week. Transactional databases that are mission critical ought to be backup up as often as feasible.

Backup Transaction Logs Often

Next to the database, transaction logs are the most important information in a SQL server database. The log covers activity & can be used to perform PiT (point-in-time) restorations.

Keep in mind: the transactional backup only backs up to the last transactional backup, so a full restore may mean performing a series of transactional backups in order to fully resort the database.

The transactional log ought to be performed every0 minutes for active databases, & at least several times a day.

Backing Up SQL Method Databases

The method databases are the other vital part of a SQL server application, including both msdb & master. There contain essential information such as method configuration & are necessary in the event of a complete restore. However, the method databases fine-tune less often & ought to be backed up at least every week, or every day if it is a active database.

One of the greatest factors that affects performance & protection of the Microsoft SQL server is the I/O of the disk subsystem.

Backups & Storage Growth

Multiple backups can generate significant storage costs as full, differential, & transactional backups are performed for active SQL systems on a regular basis. Here are a few ways to control costs, & make positive the information is properly backed up.

Offload backups to a separate, low-cost storage array. This practice ensures high-performance, high-cost disk is freed up for active databases.
Planning for growth up-front can prevent pricey, last minutes storage purchases. When purchasing a storage array from Reliant Expertise, your storage consultant will help you properly forecast your database growth & make positive you have low-cost, high-capacity disk to properly protect method & transactional logs for your databases.

Always Place Log Files on RAID 1+0 (or RAID) Disks

Placing databases & log files on RAID0 can drastically improve performance & offer better protection from hardware failure. With better write performance, your method will avoid corruption & errors.

Note: In general RAID 1+0 will provide better throughput for write-intensive applications. The amount of performance gained will vary based on the HW vendor's RAID implementations. Most common alternative to RAID 1+0 is RAID. Usually, RAID 1+0 provides better write performance than any other RAID level providing information protection, including RAID.