Clustered SQL Setup

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networkn

Networkn
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#136249 20-Nov-2013 13:48

Hi There!

We have been asked to investigate a 3 Server SQL Cluster setup. We think Shared Storage is the way to go, though the customers preference is IBM x3550 1U Servers (We prefer HP). We don't need a lot of storage, Maybe 1TB in total usable.

the V2700 IBM SAN looks a possible choice, and it appears to be connected via SAS. Will this be fast enough for SQL? The Environment is website hosting with about 200 <1GB DB's.

We were looking at SQL 2012 Features for this.

Any comments appreciated.

wasabi2k

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#937929 20-Nov-2013 14:43

That SAN appears to be Fibre Channel - according to the spec sheet on the IBM site.

In which case you want an FC Switch too. How important is redunancy? Then 2 switches.
Need FC HBAs for each server - 2 ports if you do two fabrics.
What are you doing for DR? Active/Passive + DR Mirror?
What edition of SQL?
What underlying OS? 2008R2 or 2012.

IO is down to type of disk, number of spindles and controller throughput. How many disks? What type/size of disks?
What are your IO requirements? You can have a 1TB DB with low IO requirements or a 1GB database with massive IO requirements.

More information required.

Budget?

Ragnor

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#938078 20-Nov-2013 18:32

Brent Ozar has some great blog posts and articles on this kinda of stuff

http://www.brentozar.com/sql/sql-server-san-best-practices/

http://www.brentozar.com/sql/sql-server-failover-cluster/

http://www.brentozar.com/sql/virtualization-best-practices/

Regs

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Snowflake

#938238 20-Nov-2013 21:54

what's the problem you're trying to solve with the clustering? performance or redundancy?

what's the budget?

with three clustered sql servers and small amounts of data (1TB), a pair of SSD drives in RAID-1 for each box might be a possible solution.

make sure you look at "SQL Server Always On" technology too - its the new HA option with SQL 2012 and one that MSFT is using across datacenters since beta sql 2012: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/solutions-technologies/mission-critical-operations/high-availability.aspx

enterprise class 800GB Intel SSD's run to $1500-$2000 each, 6 of them being $9000 to $12000. check this review: http://www.storagereview.com/intel_ssd_dc_s3500_enterprise_review

a SAN will normally set you back much more than that, and then you need to have fibre switches or 10Gbe interfaces to get good throughput. you'll need to get familiar with iscsi multipathing or fibre channel fabrics as well as understanding how to config/tweak the SAN you choose. you'll also get struggel to get the same IOPS of the SSD option.

depending on the goals - perf vs redundancy - perhaps you only need two clustered nodes with SSDs.

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