Posted on behalf of Doug Bernhardt, SQL Server Product Specialist
From installation, configuration, upgrading, monitoring, and data maintenance, the day-to-day responsibilities of a DBA often can’t fit into a single day—there’s never enough time.
I should know. For 15 years I was a DBA for Microsoft SQL Server. I’ve consulted for various size companies ranging from 10 employees all the way up to Fortune 25 companies with huge IT staffs.
No matter what the environment, I never had the opportunity to get my hands on the storage I was using; it was always a black box. In order to acquire additional storage resources, I was required to submit a request to a storage admin or separate team. This could sometimes mean holding up a project for days or weeks.
Since joining the Dell team, my eyes have been opened to how simple this process could have been. I could have saved everyone a lot of time and money.
With Compellent Storage Center, common SQL Server tasks like allocating and expanding storage can easily be performed by a DBA and no longer need to be outsourced to a storage administrator.
Compellent technology enables DBAs to allocate and expand storage to meet the needs of the environment as necessary, saving time—and in turn money. With the focus of the industry shifting to private cloud, self-service IT, outsourcing, and other efforts to improve efficiency, it’s clear that companies are looking for new ways to deliver faster and at a lower cost. The Compellent technology and toolset enable this.
Among my DBA colleagues, there was always a running joke about how easy our jobs were because most people don’t understand the challenges that we face— “that’s so easy a DBA can do it”. In the spirit of that common misconception, the following scenario shows just how Compellent Storage Center makes the task of managing SAN storage for SQL Server so simple that a DBA can do it—there’s no longer a need to fill out a request and wait for a storage team to fulfill that request.
Assumptions:
The Compellent Storage Center is installed and configured with the following:
- Database servers are visible in SC
- Storage Profiles have been set up for Database Storage
- Default replay profiles have been set up
- User volume defaults:
- Disable Storage Profile selection
- Disable Replay Profile selection
Add Volume Steps:
In the Compellent Storage Center GUI:
Under Storage -> Volumes in the navigation pane, right-click on Volumes and choose Create Volume
- Enter the volume Size and Name
- Select “Map this volume to a server”
- Select the server and click Create Now
The storage is now available in Windows—in just three clicks.
Expand Volume Steps:
In the Compellent Storage Center GUI:
Under Storage-> Volumes in the navigation pane right-click on Volumes and choose Expand Volume
- Enter a new size and click “Expand Volume Now”
The expanded volume is now available in Windows—in another three clicks.
Just like that, your storage needs have been met without the usual paper work. Compellent Storage Center makes managing your storage environment so easy that a DBA can do it. Come meet our DBAs and Compellent experts in Paris at the Dell Storage Forum November 14-16.