Factors Affecting Disk Space Requirements for SQL Server? Determining disk space requirements for SQL server is not that easy as it seems to be! There are different factors affecting disk space requirements for SQL server. Read on this article to learn about these factors and more!
The scope of technological advancements continues to expand with every passing day and brings new benefits and functionalities. Among the many tools that help us make the best use of technology, web servers come at the top. Web server having adequate resources is essential to ensure promising levels of performance and user experience.
One of the key responsibilities of database administrators is to monitor the disk space requirements for SQL server. Without the availability of adequate disk space, the whole infrastructure may face an abrupt shutdown. Therefore, the importance of monitoring the availability of SQL Server disk space regularly is clearly evident, especially for running applications that use the SQL server.
The following discussion aims to provide you a brief idea of the ideal approach to estimate disk space required for the Microsoft SQL database server. You would find important information regarding issues related to the estimation of disk space requirements for the SQL server. The most striking highlight of the following discussion is the outline of important factors that help in determining SQL server capacity. Subsequently, the discussion would also focus on best practices for estimating space requirements for the SQL server.
Also Read: AWS vs Azure Database Services Comparison
Reasons to Select the Right Disk Space for SQL Server
The foremost aspect that you should reflect on before estimating disk space requirements for database using SQL server are the reasons. Readers should know the important reasons for focusing on estimating the requirements of disk space in the SQL server. The most basic reason for estimating the right disk space requirement for SQL servers is to avoid any issues that can restrict the growth of business with bottlenecks.
Understanding the Trends for Each Performance Counter
One of the foremost aspects involved in the estimation of disk space requirements for SQL server is the objective of understanding trends for each performance counter. The components include CPU and RAM usage of SQL server instance, data and log file sizes, and database IOPS. Primarily, the aim here is to ensure that the selection of hardware can match future requirements of computing power.
Impact of Different Hardware on Performance Data
Another important concern to explain the importance of estimating disk space required for Microsoft SQL database server is the impact of different hardware on performance data. Readers should understand that changing the configuration of underlying hardware or migration from on-premises to the cloud will have an impact. The prominent impact is visible in the hardware performance of source and target platforms.
MAINTENANCE OF Performance According to SLAs
In addition, the correct estimation of the requirement of disk space for the SQL server could help in maintaining performance according to SLAs. Proper planning for disk space requirements in the case of the SQL server is highly essential for ensuring resilient performance levels.
Factors Affecting Disk Space Requirements for SQL Server
Now, you should know the importance of different factors affecting disk space requirements for SQL server. These factors help in estimating disk space requirements for the database using the SQL server. The knowledge of the following factors could help you find the ideal sizing for your SQL server. Readers should understand that the total load on their hosting server depends on certain factors.
Some of the factors affecting disk space requirements for SQL server include the operating system, type, and the number of files and databases, server functions, applications, and software. In addition, you will also have to focus on other factors such as a number of users, average page size, and frequency of access and security tools.
Furthermore, you also have to verify whether the website is static or dynamic for accurate estimates of SQL server capacity. Dynamic sites generally require more resources than static websites, and the SQL server should be capable of handling the changes. Therefore, one of the common SQL server storage best practices is to have marginally more resources than the expected usage.
Crucial Server Hardware Components for the Right Server Capacity
The most important concerns for any database administrator in determining disk space requirements for SQL server are the server hardware components. The three primary hardware components for the selection of right-sizing capacity for SQL servers are the CPU, memory, and storage.
Other than these primary server hardware components, you should also consider other factors that help in running the server efficiently. The factors include support, bandwidth, security, backups, reliability, and other aspects. So, let us find the approaches for determining the right sizing requirements for your applications running on the SQL server.
Selection of Processor or CPU
One of the foremost crucial factors in the perfect SQL server capacity planning formula is the selection of CPU. The CPU or web server processor is responsible for the management of all processing, logic, and calculation tasks. SQL servers generally rely on single or multiple, fast, and highly powerful processors for managing and executing different tasks simultaneously.
In the case of shared hosting, you will have to share the processing power with other individual servers. On the other hand, dedicated hosting doesn’t involve any sharing of resources, and you get the full power of processors in the physical server. The best practice of planning disk space requirements for SQL server favors the selection of a multi-core processor.
You should choose a multi-core processor with as many cores and threads as possible. The more, the better for your SQL server as it enables higher speed and efficiency in performing various computing tasks. It is also highly essential to ensure that the processor usage has a limit of 80 percent. Failing this condition can lead to a slow server queuing up the majority of the tasks, thereby slowing response to requests.
Selection of Hard Drive Size for SQL Server
The most critical choice in the planning of disk space requirements for SQL server refers to the hard drive size. The disk size depends on multiple factors like the number of users, size, and type of applications and files. A general web application includes multiple types of files, including dynamic content as well as static components. So, if you’ve got an application that contains a large number of videos and images, then you need more disk space. The SQL server capacity planning formula for the disk space requirements would focus on the following factors.
- Control panel
- Operating system
- Database
- Security and other tools
- Applications
For example, suppose that the average page size on your application is 25k, and 40 pages account for 1MB storage space. So, for 4000 pages, you will need a storage space of 100MB.
Now, if your application stores email files and a database, then you have to ensure that you would need additional storage space. For example, if your application requires a storage space of 100MB and you have 4000 users, with each user requiring 1MB, then you will need a total of 100MB + (4000x1MB)= 4100MB or 4.1GB for hosting your database files.
You can improve your SQL server capacity planning calculator by taking note of the important factors. Apart from the above concerns, you should also note the calculation of the total disk space. The ideal total disk space should be the sum of all the data that you store on a disk. However, you should ensure that the disk space requirements for SQL server should not exceed 85% of the available space. It is extremely important to leave at least 15% of the disk space on the server hard drive free.
For example, if you need a total disk space of 30GB for your SQL server, then think of it as 85% of the total capacity of the SQL server. Therefore, the ideal requirement of storage space for your SQL server, in this case, would be 35.2GB. Now, it may be difficult to get such disk space requirements for SQL server exactly in the market. So, you can go for the next standard size offered by the provider, such as a 40GB or 50GB.
Speed and Reliability of Disk Are Also Important
Did you think that now you have the perfect SQL server capacity planning calculator with you? Slow down and think for a moment about the fact that speed and reliability of the disks are also important. Nowadays, you can see that modern storage systems rely more on solid-state SSD drives. Why? It’s because they can provide higher speed and reliability as compared to conventional mechanical disk types.
Certain hosts can provide you with the option to choose the type of disk. Therefore, you should go for solid-state SSD drives if you need higher reliability and performance. In addition, you should also consider the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) to find the limits on a number of files you can store on the disk. For example, if you have a storage capacity of 20GB, 50GB, or unlimited disk storage capacity, then you can store only up to 300,000 files.
Selecting the Server Memory or RAM
The next crucial requirement in planning disk space requirements for SQL Server is the server memory or RAM. Server memory is very important as it facilitates temporary storage for data that is subject to processing in the CPU. In addition, the server memory also depicts a faster and better read/write performance when compared to a hard drive. Sufficient memory helps in reducing the need for the server in accessing the slow hard disk memory frequently.
The best practice for selecting server memory is to pay attention to the notable determinants of server memory performance. The determinants include an operating system, security software, applications, database, control panel, and other features of your application that consumes memory. Users should check for the recommended specifications and then make sure that they have adequate memory for different SQL server components and their functions.
The ideal practice in the case would be to have a higher amount of server RAM than actual specifications. You can opt for an additional 10% of memory so that you have memory available at all times during normal operations. The general packages include server memory options such as 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 6GB, or even 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and more.
Plan the Storage Requirements for Future
A crucial requirement in planning disk space requirements for SQL Server is oversight regarding the future database size. Various individuals follow a comparatively simplistic approach for determining the size of their databases. For example, in the case of a new application, you can try estimating the future size of the database by taking into account certain factors that affect disk space requirements for SQL server.
Two of the important factors would include the row length of each table and the number of business transactions stored on the database for a certain period of time. Such an approach may work relatively well in the case of databases having comparatively fewer tables. On the other hand, if you have columns with variable length, then the precision of your estimates for long-term database size would decrease.
Nature of the Business
In addition, planning the disk space requirements for SQL server also requires an adequate focus on the nature of the business. If you plan the right estimate for a number of business transactions that a server might have to store over a certain period of time, you can find the ideal sizing estimates. For instance, an application for selling grocery products would need more disk space when compared to a furniture store.
In addition, you should also consider the seasonal trends for determining the right storage space requirements for your SQL server. For example, you have to account for a higher number of transactions during the festive season when you are finding the right storage space for the database of a gift store.
You should also plan adequately for the additional space that indexes require because indexes occupy the same or even additional space than data. It is also essential to note that data and indexes are not capable of utilizing index pages fully. The free space available in data pages depends on the data type of the columns and the number of columns in a table. In the case of index pages, the availability of free space depends on the pad parameters and the fill factor.
Final Words
So, you can clearly conclude that planning disk space requirements for SQL Server are a very complex task. The best possibility of achieving success with planning the requirements of disk space is through collaboration. Not only database administrators but also developers and system analysts must collaborate to find the perfect server storage capacity.
You have to remember that inadequate database capacity for SQL server can lead to many issues for user experience. Therefore, you have to implement the right server resources which can not only manage requests from multiple users and connections but also operate without any roadblocks. Most important of all, make sure that your host provider is reliable and could provide you with required support during normal and peak-demand conditions.
To Know Which technology is better AWS or Azure please go through the link.
Excellent document. The space disk is allways a trick in SQL Servers ,and calculate is not as simple as request some space, this disscussion foucus in the most important things you need to know ,and what will be the best space schemas for you work.
Very good Faiz.