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USING FLASHARRAY SNAPSHOTS WITH MICROSOFT SQL SERVER
HOW-TO, TECHNICAL DETAILS, BEST PRACTICES, AND SUGGESTED USE CASES FOR VOLUME SNAPSHOTS WITH MICROSOFT SQL SERVER.
Executive summary
As organizations experience rapid data growth, traditional data management approaches reliant on backups struggle to keep pace. These methods often fall short in terms of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and speed, presenting challenges in maintaining data integrity and security amidst increasing threats like ransomware and data loss.
FlashArray snapshots offer a powerful solution to these challenges by providing a quick, reliable, and cost-effective way to manage data within Microsoft SQL Server environments. By utilizing snapshots at the storage layer, organizations can streamline data management, reduce storage sprawl, improve recovery times, and enhance data protection – all while mitigating the risks associated with data security.
This document explains how FlashArray snapshots integrate with SQL Server databases to address common data management needs, from copying and restoring databases to recovering from user errors, cloning databases, and seeding availability groups. Readers will gain insights into both foundational and advanced use cases, in addition to best practices for ensuring database consistency and troubleshooting snapshot issues. This paper serves as a practical guide for leveraging FlashArray snapshots to improve efficiency, security, and data control in SQL Server environments.
Solution overview
This solution focuses on utilizing FlashArray block storage volumes with SQL Server databases. These hosts contain SQL Server user databases, including both data and log files, stored on FlashArray volumes. FlashArray snapshots can then be created for these volumes, providing point-in-time copies that capture the volume’ s data state. •
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