SQL Server Deployment with FlashArray

1. Create the storage host by navigating to the Storage view and then clicking the Hosts tab. To create a new host, click the + in the top right of the Hosts list.

   

2. In the Create Hosts dialog, provide a name and optionally set the host to be added to a protection group, and then click Create.

   

3. In the newly created host's detail view, identify the section for Host Ports, click the ellipsis, and then, depending on the required storage protocol, select the relevant entry to provide (WWN for Fibre Channel Protocol, IQN for iSCSI, and NQN for NVM Express over Fabrics).

   • If using Fibre Channel Protocol then the WWNs might be selectable from the existing WWN list. If so, select them, and then click Add.

     

   • If using iSCSI, then the IQN needs to be obtained from the host and entered in the dialog box. After doing so, click Add to complete the process.

     

4. To provision storage, navigate to the Storage view, and then select the Volumes tab. Identify the Volumes list section and then click the + on the right side to create a new volume.

   

5. In the Create Volume dialog, provide a Name, set a Provisioned Size for the new volume, and then click Create.

   

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each new volume that needs to be created. The example shown in Figure 21 creates two volumes, one for the database data files (.mdf and .ndf) and another for the transaction log files.

   

7. To connect the volumes to the host created in step 2, navigate to the Storage view, then to the Hosts tab, and then select the host from the list to open its detail view. Identify the section for Connected Volumes, click the ellipsis in the top right, and then select Connect.

   

8. In the Connect Volumes to Host dialog, select the volumes created in step 5, and then select Connect.

   

9. Once all the required volumes have been connected, the host should show them in the Connected Volumes list.

   

1. In Disk Management, identify the new volumes in the list of disks.

   

2. Set the disk as online by right-clicking the "Disk" portion of the view, and then selecting Online. Repeat this process for each disk being configured.

   

3. When all disks are online, right-click the "Disk" portion of the view, and then select Initialize Disk.

   

4. In the Initialize Disk dialog, select each disk that needs to be configured, and then ensure that the GPT partition style is selected. Click OK to proceed.

   

5. Select the "Partition" portion of the view from the disk, right-click it to bring up the configuration list, and then select New Simple Volume.

   

6. The New Simple Volume wizard will launch. Click Next to proceed.

   

7. Specify the Simple Volume Size in MB up to the maximum disk space, and then click Next.

   

8. Specify the drive letter or mount point, and then click Next.

   

9. Choose the NTFS file system with an Allocation unit size of 64K, provide a volume label, and then click Next.

   

10. Review the configuration, and then click Finish.

    

11. Repeat steps 5–10 for each disk to create a file system and assign a mount point or drive letter.

    

12. Create a folder on the root of each new file system for the database files to be contained within.

    

CREATE DATABASE UserDB
 ON
( NAME = N'UserDB', FILENAME = N'E:\SQL\UserDB.mdf' , SIZE = 67108864KB , FILEGROWTH = 65536KB
)
 LOG ON
( NAME = N'UserDB_log', FILENAME = N'F:\SQL\UserDB_log.ldf' , SIZE = 16777216KB , FILEGROWTH =
65536KB )
GO