Enhancing SQL Server Protection with Dell EqualLogic Smart Copy Snapshots User Guide
Summary
Optimize your SQL Server protection strategy with this technical whitepaper guide. It details how Dell EqualLogic Smart Copy Snapshots enhance data resilience and provide robust backup capabilities for mission-critical databases. Designed for storage engineers and IT administrators, the resource covers comprehensive performance testing results, best practice recommendations, and configuration guides for implementing efficient point-in-time recovery solutions within VMware environments.
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Dell Equal Logic Best Practices Series
Enhancing SQL Server Protection using Dell Equal Logic Smart Copy Snapshots A Dell Technical Whitepaper
Storage Infrastructure and Solutions Engineering Dell Product Group July 2011
Page Summary Contents For Enhancing SQL Server Protection with Dell EqualLogic Smart Copy Snapshots User Guide
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Dell Equal Logic Best Practices Series Enhancing SQL Server Protection using Dell Equal Logic Smart Copy Snapshots A Dell Technical Whitepaper Storage Infrastructure and Solutions Engineering Dell Pro...
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THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. ...
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Table of Contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Audience ...
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Acknowledgements This whitepaper was produced by the PG Storage Infrastructure and Solutions team between January 2011 and April 2011 at the Dell Labs facility in Round Rock, Texas. The team that crea...
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1 Introduction Backup and recovery operations are the focus of business continuity and data protection plans and often the main source of anxiety for IT departments. Few businesses are fully satisfied...
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2 SQL Server backup considerations A copy of data that can be used to restore and recover the data is called a backup. Backups let you restore data after a failure. Microsoft® SQL Server® enables you ...
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Restoration Tools and Processes The tools and processes your enterprise has in place to restore data ultimately determine what kind RTOs you are able to support. Some tools may require multiple manual...
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Eliminate Backup Window using off-host backups A good snapshot implementation should provide near instantaneous and non-disruptive consistent copy of the database. If the snapshots are transportable o...
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3 Test system configuration To conduct the system testing detailed in this paper we created the SQL Server® test system as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 – Test System Configuration Some key design detai...
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The MGMT server was a Dell Power Edge R710 server running Windows 2008 R2 natively. It was used to host the following management and monitoring tools: Equal Logic SAN Headquarters (SANHQ), VMware v ...
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3.1 Storage volume layout A single pool was created from each array. Table 1 lists the volumes and Figure 2 shows the volume layout. Table 1 – Storage volumes Volume Size Purpose Data Pool (PS6000XV R...
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3.2 Testing SQL Server backup processing impact In this test we measured the impact on server and database performance when running the SQL Server® native backup utility to create a full database back...
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In Figure 4 we show the impact on CPU utilization during the backup process. Figure 4 – CPU utilization impact when creating SQL Server backup using native backup utility 3.2.1 Analysis and conclusion...
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snapshot is transactionally consistent with the source database at the time the snapshot is created. A snapshot will persist until it is dropped. 3.3.1 Time to create a SQL Server snapshot as a functi...
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snapshot creation, while retaining multiple snapshots. Differences between this test and the previous one: During creation of all snapshots in the series we ran a constant TPC-C style workload on th...
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Figure 7 – System and database performance impact when creating SQL Server snapshot In the next section, we now look at how snapshots at Equal Logic SAN layer perform under similar test conditions. 3....
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3.4.1 Time to create Equal Logic Smart Copy snapshots Test details: As in the previous tests, we used Quest Benchmark Factory to simulate a TPC-C style workload. A constant 4000 user workload was si...
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3.4.2 Impact on system and database performance while creating Smart Copy snapshots We also measured system and database performance impact while creating a series of Smart Copy snapshots. Figure 9 sh...
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Figure 10 – Comparing response times during creation of SQL Server snapshots and ASM/ME Smart Copies In section 3.4, we illustrated the non-disruptive nature of Equal Logic Smart Copy Snapshots on SQL...
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Test 2 o We performed a system recovery to the same point in time as in test #1. o In this test case we restored using the most recent Auto-Snapshot Manager snapshot Smart Copy (using Auto-Snapshot ...
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Recovery Task Time to complete (seconds) Restore full database (130 GB) to T0 900 Replay of 13 transaction Logs 1560 Recover database 29 Total 2489 (41:29) 3.5.2 Test 2 results: In-place restore from ...
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Figure 12 – Results of recovery time comparison Conclusions from the results presented in Figure 12: The ASM Smart copy based recovery process was approximately 7.5 times faster than the recovery pr...
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Figure 13 – Restore and recovery data flow path using native SQL Server backup utility BP1014 Enhancing SQL Server Protection using Dell Equal Logic Snapshot Smart Copies 22
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Figure 14– Restore and recovery data flow path using Equal Logic Smart Copy in-place restore BP1014 Enhancing SQL Server Protection using Dell Equal Logic Snapshot Smart Copies 23
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4 Best practice recommendations In the following sections we summarize best practices to follow for using Auto-Snapshot Manager and for SQL backup strategies in general. 4.1 Including Equal Logic Smar...
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Carefully assess your RPO goals: Depending on your target RPO goals, you should ascertain whether you can fulfill them with just Smart Copies alone or would need a combination of backup sets in conjun...
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Database Layout As a best practice, make sure that SQL Server® databases and associated transactions logs should each reside in dedicated volumes. This will prevent creation of “torn” Smart Copies d...
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Careful scheduling is necessary when you have different backup and snapshot schedules running against the same database. It is very important that backup destinations reside on storage devices tha...
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host i SCSI connection path between the SQL database server and the PS6500E backup pool array. Per Microsoft® SQL Server® storage requirements, SQL Server® guest operating system images must be depl...
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Appendix A Auto Snapshot Manager / Microsoft Edition This appendix provides a brief introduction to Equal Logic Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft® Edition. For more in depth information, please see the ...
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Auto-Snapshot Manager manages the interaction with SQL Server® to prepare the database for the Smart Copy operation. When you create an ASM Smart Copy, SQL Server® first places the database in a consi...
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Appendix B Test system component details This section contains an overview of both the hardware and software configurations used throughout the testing described in this document. Table 4 – Test Confi...
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Table 5 – Test Configuration Software Components Test Configuration – Software Components Database Server VM Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition Equal Logic Host Integration Toolkit (HIT) v3.4...
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Related publications The following Dell publications are referenced in this document or are recommended sources for additional information. Microsoft SQL Server Database Protection Using Equal Logic...
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THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.
Manual Details
| Brand | Server |
|---|---|
| Pages | 35 |
| File Size | 1.34 MB |
| Published | May 31, 2026 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
How should I integrate EqualLogic Smart Copies into my protection strategy?
You should include them as part of your overall SQL Server database protection strategy.
Does creating snapshots affect system or database performance?
Yes, the paper tests for and analyzes the impact of snapshot creation time and subsequent point-in-time recovery on database performance.
What critical software components are required for this setup?
Necessary components include EqualLogic Host Integration Toolkit (HIT) v3.4.2 and EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition v3.4.2.