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 HDD upgrade

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psawant
Starting Member

14 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 03:44:48
I have a hard disk upgrade (mirrored d drive) coming up for my prod db for which I have 3 hrs green zone to bring the server up.

SQL server is installed in C drive & db is setup on D drive, what I would like to know here is the following plan will work for me.

1. Disable all SQL services.
2. Take D drive backup.
3. Break the mirror remove both the HDD.
4. Insert new HDD & built the mirror.
5. Copy back the data & enable all the SQL services.

Will this method work? OR is their any better way of replacing the HDD without OS reinstall?

Kristen
Test

22859 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 04:13:06
Can you:

1. Disable services
2. Reassign D drive as Z drive
3. Install new drive, assign as D drive, build mirror
(might be some drives hanging out the side of the case at this point!)
4. Copy Z drive to D drive
5. Remove Z drive
5a. Optionally defrag database files
6. Enable services

Note that (1) should be done by BOTH setting the services to Stopped AND changing them to Disabled - if you only do the first then a reboot will bring the services back online.

You should also disable any [relevant] scheduled tasks

You might like to have a look at:
http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=55210&SearchTerms=Move+a+database+to+a+new+server
which is about moving to a new machine, but there may be some things discussed which are relevant.

Kristen
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psawant
Starting Member

14 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 04:34:51
Unfortunately I don’t have any spare slots, I have total 4 of them out of which 2 are used for C Drive & 2 are used for D drive, so in any given case I have to remove both of my HDD to build new mirror.


-- Prakash Sawant
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Kristen
Test

22859 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 04:52:07
I see ...

Probably a daft idea but I'll mention it anyway:

Disable the mirror

replace second drive with a new one (as Z:)

Copy D: to Z:

Remove D:

Reassign Z: as D:

Install second new drive

Build the mirror (server could be on-line whilst this is happening, but that might be a bit risky!)

The restore-from-tape stuff is the point I'm anxious about:

1) Is restore from tape slow?
2) Might there be an error on the tape which would require start-over?

Kristen
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ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 05:27:56
quote:
Originally posted by Kristen
Probably a daft idea but I'll mention it anyway:
Disable the mirror
replace second drive with a new one (as Z:)
Copy D: to Z:
Remove D:
Reassign Z: as D:
Install second new drive
Build the mirror

Kristen



Kristen ..I am also in the team which is going to do this migration. I got what you are saying till the last line (Build the mirror). I have the following queries....

1. Before BUILDING THE MIRROR i have two new drives one with the data and second empty. How the system will identify the drive from which it needs to do the mirror. (How it will identify the source and target)

2. Can I have data in one of the hard disks before building the mirror?

Thank you for your suggestions.







------------------------
I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes
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Kristen
Test

22859 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 06:14:43
What I'm imagining is that its the same as a drive failing - you replace the "faulty" drive and re-mirror the good one to the new, blank, one.

Whether you can do that by having a non-mirrored drive (the new, upgraded, one) and then asking the system to set up a mirror to a "brand new one" I don't know.

Kristen
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psawant
Starting Member

14 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 08:20:47
Thank you for your suggestions.

I will let you guys know what steps we exactly followed for HDD up gradation.

------
Prakash Sawant

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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA

4184 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 08:29:40
Is this new hard drive a bigger size or faster speed? Are you replacing both of them? If you're just replacing one, then backup the C: drive (system state backup??) and yank one of the drives. Let it rebuild.

If you're replacing both, then
1. shutoff the services accessing d:.
2. Backup d:.
3. Yank D: drives.
4. Insert new drives.
5. Restore c: onto new drives (D:?).
6. Turn off the server.
7. Switch d: to c:.
8. Replace the old d: drives.
9. Turn the server back on.

If anything goes wrong, you have backups. You also still have both your original drive sets you can slide back in and call it off until another day.

MeanOldDBA
derrickleggett@hotmail.com

When life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA.
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psawant
Starting Member

14 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 08:51:36
I just want to upgrade my D drive with out doing anything to my OS (C drive).

1. The new hard disk is bigger in size & faster in speed then existing one.
2. I am replacing both the Hard disk on D Drive.
3. Both C & D Drive are in Mirror.

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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA

4184 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-06 : 23:49:59
Okay. You don't have to touch the C: drive or OS then. Just make a backup of the D: drive. If you have room on the C: drive, you might want to also copy the entire D: drive to it because restoring disk to disk is faster than from tape. Yank both the existing D: drives. Put the new ones in and let it build the mirror. Copy or restore the data back over. You're done. I would perform a defrag after if these are local drives.

Ravi, did you guys ever get this done? It's not that hard, unless I'm just not understanding you guys.

MeanOldDBA
derrickleggett@hotmail.com

When life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA.
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ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-07 : 02:30:33
>> Ravi, did you guys ever get this done? It's not that hard, unless I'm just not
>> understanding you guys.

The catch is that we have a very small gree zone. And the DB's are huge! I don't have enough space on C: to copy the content of D: drive.

Hence exploring all the alternatives. We willbe doing this activity within 2-3 weeks. We will update you guys.




------------------------
I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes
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ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-07 : 02:32:12
I will also post my CV sometime later...in case the whole thing goes down!

------------------------
I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes
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