pdchandran (8/23/2009)
The important which I had missed is - Sql Server has the database and log files locked as long as the Sql Server service is running. It would not be possible to copy/replicate these files when they are in locked state. So all the scenarios which we had proposed earlier would fail. Its a shame that I had not thought of that.The only way implement DR is to use in-built Sql Server features namely Log-Shipping or Mirroring. Probably Log-Shipping would be a much better, since this is a remote DR site, nearly 200 miles away from the production Data-Centre. We will install a new instance on this site and implement log-shipping for all the 20 DBs one by one.
THanks all for your support.
That really depends upon what SAN you are using and whether or not they can perform snapshots of the volumes for SQL Server databases.
Netapp SAN's have a product call SnapManager that 'freezes' the SQL Server database and snaps the LUN. This snap can then be backed up, restored on another server - used in a SnapMirror configuration and other options. This production uses the Microsoft VDI (Virtual Device Interface) to interact with SQL Server and allow for the 'copying' of database files while online. This process only takes a few seconds on very large databases.
Other SAN's have other software that allow for the same thing - however, all of these solutions do not have the ability to snap the system databases LUN. In any business continuity scenario - you are going to have to account for either rebuilding the server and restoring the user databases, or have a process in place to restore the system databases.
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