We start with an existing SQL Server database on-prem. The setup of the existing SQL Server database is as follows:
Following the best practices listed in the document below, the database volume and the logs volume are separated from the boot volume. Please note that this is just a sample setup, and following this setup is not a requirement for transferring data to Everpure Cloud Dedicated.
Best Practices for SQL Server on FlashArray.
Three volumes are created on the FlashArray, namely SQL_Boot, SQL_DB, and SQL_Logs:
Three Datastores are created in vCenter; one on each of the three volumes. A VM called SQLSrv-2019 is created on the datastore using the SQL_Boot volume, and the datastores SQL_DB and SQL_logs are added as additional Hard Disk devices to the SQLSrv-2019 VM (see below):
Microsoft Windows and SQL Server are installed on the SQLSrv-2019 VM. During SQL Server installation, the SQL_DB volume (drive letter E:) and SQL_Logs volume (drive letter F:) are selected as locations to store the database files and log files respectively:
In the SQLSRV-2019 VM, A database called CBSDatabase is created with a table called dbo.Contacts, and a few rows of data are added to the table, as shown below:
This database is used as an example to show how VMware data stored in VMFS format is transferred from a FlashArray to an Everpure Cloud Dedicated instance in AWS.