MSsql zero copy clone databases

[Fos]

Thanks a lot David.

Great things to think about, and given I am the single person dependancy with the Nimble SQL experience I'm leaning towards SQL tools again.  At least then the ones who see the problem can fix it rather than a server admin trying to talk to app developers.

BTW I am a server admin primarily resposible for SQL and hte closet we have to a DBA, however I really manipulate data.

Thanks again I'm going to go away and try some things

[aspnerd82]

What I would suggest is if you have enterprise edition, create an availability group of your database(s) from your primary production database server to your reporting database server and then create a read-only instance on your reporting server using asynchronous connection between them. This way you report server can 'read' the production data in near real time and you don't have to move it. The data would be trickle copied between servers and be available. You could even switch to synchronous and the data would be there in real-time.

[jtmoree23]

as someone else suggested: Using a slave replication server for the reporting services database works very well.  We have issues when heavy loads hit the primary database so I setup a second mysql server vm which replicates the data from primary in real time.  We only every run reporting services against that database.  Using clones on the nimble is going to be a less efficient and more error prone method to replicate data.

[rugby0134]

Here's a good video on doing it with clones - Nimble Storage Demo: SQL Server Recovery - YouTube

[aspnerd82]

Kevin, that doesn't look like it would really work for his needs. Also it looks to be decent amount of downtime/manual work unless it's something that can be automated to constantly refresh those LUNS on the other server constantly.

[Fos · Accepted solution]

Thanks everyone

This is really great.

The Gist I'm getting is while it would work, it would not be of great benefit, be very complex, and is not really a mature way of implementing this.

As the Single person dependency if we implement this I would prefer to use a tech that others can step in and take over while I'm on leave.

Such as SQL replications.

There is nothing worse than have the body shots interrupted by a poor replicating database.

[pseverini38]

Is there anyone on this thread that has actual first hand experience using the zero copy clone feature with SQL Server Standard under vSphere? I see a ton of Q&A, but I'm looking for someone who can help identify the pros and cons of this type of solution using Nimble. We're currently looking to implement a read-only replica of our current production ERP database for a data warehousing solution. We would like to be able to refresh the data warehouse with production data on a minimum frequency of 4 times a day. Is anyone using a solution that falls outside the typical options that are already offered by Microsoft SQL Server (i.e. log shipping, mirroring, replication, always-on)? We would like to avoid the overhead and management of the application layer replication solutions if possible.

Thanks for your help.

[pseverini38]

David,

Did you eventually decide on a path for your project? Do you have any additional insight with the Nimble zero copy clone feature?

Thanks.

[iannoble38]

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