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Mitch
Starting Member
5 Posts |
 Posted - 2007-03-05 : 15:08:12
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| We got a major problem here in our data center. I am not new to SQL but I am no dba. Our boss will not hire one. I am a network and systems engineer and our boss wont listen to us. So I need validation from anyone here. This is what we got. We have a desktop computer with a P4 3.2ghz, 4 gigs ram, 4 sata hard drives in a software raid config. This machine is running as a secondary domain controller, Visual Source Safe, SQL 2000 server with 208 databases. I think this is way to much for this little box. Plus software raid is horrible. But we cant get good hardware. We are using backup exec to try and back up this box and others, but this one box keeps crashing during our full backups every Friday. Anyone have an idea why? or would any like to comment on our setup so I can take it to the boss to validate why we need to get a real server. Thanks. |
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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)
7020 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-05 : 15:51:16
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| It sounds like a really bad setup, but if you boss won't listen to you, what makes you think he is going to listen to some anonymous posting on a message board?If it helps, I would say:Get a real server.Run hardware RAID.Don’t use it as a Domain controller or to run other applications, like IIS.Get a DBA at least on a short term consulting basis to help get the mess straightened out and develop a good backup strategy.There are a lot of other thing I would recommend, like performance analysis and index tuning, but I don’t think you are in a position to take these on.Are these internal applications, or are you a hosting provider?CODO ERGO SUM |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-05 : 15:57:07
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| You will need to prove to your boss that you need new hardware. To do this, you can show him that current hardware bottlenecks exists by showing him Performance Counter data. I would run Performance Monitor for a few hours during the busiest time on the server. Make sure to collect CPU, Memory, and SQL Server performance data. If you are unfamiliar with Performance Monitor, then I'd check out the articles over at www.sql-server-performance.com .Tara Kizer |
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Mitch
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-05 : 17:57:30
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| It is a bad setup. We have been trying to tell him this for a while. he thinks hardware is hardware no matter what. These are internal servers. We don't host for anyone else. You don't have to tell me there are performance problems. Of course there are. This server goes against everything I know about servers. Tuning this server would be a waste of time in my opinion. This many databases should not be run on a p4 with software raid. My computer at home that I play games on is more powerful. But yes this box is doing way too much for the hardware its on. |
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Mitch
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-05 : 18:17:21
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| I started running some performance checks, and already just the memory paging is high. Average should be less than 20 pages per sec. We are running about 30 pages a second. And of course disk queue length should be 2, but we are at 100. Maximum Disk time is 2200. How does all this sound? Is there anywhere else I should look or any other monitors I should be watching? |
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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)
7020 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-05 : 23:33:03
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| If you are going to run Performance Monitor, look at the following, and post the results back here.Process: % Processor Time: totalProcess: % Processor Time: sqlservrProcess: Working Set: sqlservrSQL Server: Buffer Manager: Page Life ExpectancySQL Server: Buffer Manager: Page Reads/SecSQL Server: Buffer Manager: Page Writes/SecSQL Server: Cache Manager: Cache Hit RatioSQL Server: General Statistics: User ConnectionsSQL Server: Memory Manager: Target Server Memory(KB)SQL Server: Memory Manager: Total Server Memory(KB)SQL Server: SQL Statistics: Batch Requests/secSystem: Context Switches/secSystem: Processor Queue LengthWhat Windows version/SP are you running? What edition/SP of SQL Server are you running?Are you getting lots of complaints from the end-users of the system? I can't imagine they are happy with the performance.CODO ERGO SUM |
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Mitch
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-07 : 12:58:17
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| its running Windows Server 2003 SP1 with SQL 2000. not sure what sql sp but its version 8.00.2039. Aside from the server always crashing yeah its pretty damn slow. we aren't worried about how fast it is. Boss wants to know why its crashing and how to stop it. |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-07 : 13:27:22
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| You need to examine the Application Log and System Log in Event Viewer to determine what caused the crash. Look at the events right before the crash and right after. But what do you mean by crash anyway? Blue screen of death? System just unresponsive? Console completely locked up? ...Tara Kizer |
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jsmith8858
Dr. Cross Join
7423 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-07 : 13:54:03
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| How are you doing your backups? If you are trying to backup live MDF files, you will have problems. Is the SQL Server at least configured to properly create backup files for the databases?- Jeffhttp://weblogs.sqlteam.com/JeffS |
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Mitch
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-16 : 11:11:29
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| Event log shows nothing. After the reboot, it says last shutdown was unexpected. we stopped doing sql backups a while ago. still crashes. Performance monitor are out of control. MS says disk time 20-50 is a serious issue. We are at 3000. all the others are very high as well. cpu time should be 2 I think. We are at 400 |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-16 : 12:30:04
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| Have you looked in the SQL Log? Its probably in a folder like:C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Logare there any SQLDump*.* files in there? If so the .TXT files may give you a clue what was running when the world fell in (plus the file times may correspond to the times the server crashed?)For example, some database action calling an external COM object can give you a bad day!Worth also looking in the ERRORLOG.n files - they may indicate something out of the ordinary.Kristen |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2007-03-16 : 12:51:17
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| Mitch, please see my last post.Tara Kizerhttp://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/ |
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