Building a server?

  • OK, I am in charge of specifying our new SQL server, our server now is 5 years old and we are seeing some performance issues. We are a small company and I am as close to a DBA as we have so bear with me.

    A few questions keep coming up…

    1. Physical or virtual? All of our servers now are virtual expect our SQL server.

    2. Should the report server be on a separate server than the database?

    3. We are running Backup Exec on our database server, is this ok?

    Our current server is as follows, do you see any issues with this setup?

    Dell Power Edge

    • Windows server 2008 r2 sp1

    • SQL 2008 r2 Standard

    • 24 gb RAM

    • 2x 4 core, Intel Xeon X5365 300GHz

    • A single Raid 5 (4 SCSI 15000 rpm drives)

    Thank you.

    Also we are wanting to upgrade to SQL 2012

  • Gosh... that's not a bad server (If it's 64 bit... don't know just by looking at processor numbers) especially for a small company. I believe I'd find some way to add some memory and change from RAID 5 to RAID 10 and use it for another 5 years. Maybe update the OS, as well.

    Backup Exec is fine... just don't run it during peak hours. It's a bit agressive on the harddisk and the pipe.

    Some folks will disagree but I think that VM would be an unnecessary complication, in this case.

    Moving reporting to a different server won't hurt and usually helps.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Thanks Jeff

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