Minimize down time due to database migration

[kbryk90]

Hi all,

Going to be migrating our database from one drive to another on the same server, and looking to minimize downtime. I'm wondering what others have done to reduce downtime? Only thought I have is to make a backup, transfer this over to the new drive, detach the current database and then restore from the backup, but that seems like a typical procedure.

Also worth mentioning, I know Solarwinds had an application that imported the list of nodes with node name and IP address and provided basic monitoring (ping), does anyone know if that is still around?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[mesverrum]

The standard stop services, detach, move, attach, restart services method is typically pretty fast, only limited by the size of your db and the speed your server copies the files.  If you want to be more fancy there are methods that incur 0 downtime, but rely on you having a pretty savvy DBA.

See this for one example, not necessarily the gold star but just a first google hit.

Move Database Files Without Taking the Database Offline | T-SQL content from SQL Server Pro

-Marc Netterfield

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[kbryk90]

Unfortunately I am not a savvy DBA or even a DBA . Looks like I'll be keeping the migration to the standard procedure.

[d09h]

I had one upgrade involving a migration that took close to a week.  I got support involved and I believe we identified a .dll that needed to be modified or removed...can't recall which.  That action resulted in the progress indicator finally moving and only taking a few hours.  Presumably the first few days resulted in nothing.  So in some cases, even all the preparation and documentation won't prevent all possible issues.  Granted, it was a heavily locked down environment.

[d09h · Accepted solution]

Traps table can grow huge.  Is yours?  Need all of the traps to migrate?  Has database maintenance been done?  http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/Orion/docs/OriondbBestPractices.pdf​

If you have NCM, that can have large amounts of configs in database.  Choice can be made to trim that down, especially if they exist elsewhere (Orion server's filesystem for example).

Engineer's toolset (trial or purchased) can ping monitor.

https://support.solarwinds.com/Success_Center/Engineer

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[kbryk90]

d09h​ Thanks for the information, haven't come across the DB best practices document yet.