Thin provision with SQL 2005

[mjgalloway]

We are looking out moving our SQL 2005/Sharepoint environment over to NetApp. We are looking at thin provisiong the LUNs (space reserved None, fractional reserve 0) along with using SMSQL and SMSP to manage the LUNs and snapshots this is all over FC. Does anyone see any downsides to this or experience with running SQL in thin luns wit snapshots? Thanks.

[ekashpureff]

Downside is if you ever run out of space when thin provisioning.

Bad things happen if you run out of space !

But yes, you can and ( I say ) you should thin provision.

It'd be a very good thing to have a thorough understanding of thin

provisioning in a NetApp SAN environ before doing so. You may

wish to take a look at:

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3483.pdf

I hope this response has been helpful to you.

At your service,

Eugene E. Kashpureff
ekashp@kashpureff.org
Senior Systems Architect / NetApp Certified Instructor
http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekashpureff

(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

[scottgelb]

TR3483 is one of my favorite TRs.  It explains space reservation better than any other doc and when people have questions on space reserve, snap reserve, thin provisioning, lun space usage, etc., I always ask they read this paper and usually no additional explanation is needed.