Boston Limited IT system builder and distributor

Transcription

1 Red Gate Case Studies Boston Limited IT system builder and distributor Using SQL Backup Pro, log file backups are now compressed to less than 500KB. The savings in terms of disk space usage and bandwidth usage are amazing. Andy Doyle, Head of IT, Boston Limited

2 Andy Doyle Head of IT Boston Limited Industry sector: Technology Contents Summary The context A need to automate The early days The benefits of backup compression Having an overview of performance Sleeping easy Summary Boston Limited, an IT system builder and distributor, began using Red Gate tools to manage their SQL Server database backups. As a result: The majority of their databases are verified on a regular basis. Log file backups are now compressed to less than 500KB. They could reduce the interval between backups from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. 2

3 Boston Limited Case Study The context Founded in 1992, UK-based Boston Limited ( builds and distributes award-winning server, storage, and workstation solutions worldwide. The company offers a full range of services, from custom design, configuration, assembly, and testing, to global support and maintenance. Boston recently opened offices in Germany, India, and the USA, with further growth expected over the coming years. Providing IT services to remote, globally-dispersed offices is now an even bigger challenge for their IT team. Leading that team is Andy Doyle. Andy has been at Boston Limited for over 14 years, and has worked his way through the ranks. Starting in technical support, he s worked in IT operations and web and software development. Now, as part of Boston s senior management team, he takes a lead on operations and business strategy. When supporting 30+ production databases had become near impossible for the team, Andy knew that they needed to introduce some automation and tools in order to cope with the increasing demand. Having previously used Red Gate s.net Developer Bundle, Andy began to evaluate Red Gate s tools for DBAs. 3

4 A need to automate "We needed an easier way to manage our SQL Server database backups. "We looked at a range of products in the marketplace, and within days of trialing SQL Backup Pro in our development environment, we purchased a couple of licenses and rolled it out to our production and off-site backup servers. "Since then we have upgraded to the SQL DBA Bundle. "We wanted to take advantage of SQL Monitor, to keep an eye on our systems and to free up our time from the day-to-day manual tasks we d been performing. I was also really keen to use SQL Prompt." The early days "In no more than a couple of hours of using SQL Backup Pro we had configured all of our enterprise resource planning (ERP) and warehouse management system (WMS) databases to be regularly backed up and log shipped to our off-site server. We also configured SQL Backup Pro to verify the majority of our databases on a regular basis, to ensure the validity of the backup files. "SQL Monitor proved a little trickier. We initially encountered some performance issues with the SQL Monitor web UI, but the Red Gate support team were fantastic when we got in touch. They very quickly suggested a few changes we could make to IIS and SQL Monitor, and things have since been much better." 4

5 The benefits of backup compression "Having used the tools for a few months now, we re really beginning to see the impact they re having, in particular the bandwidth usage for data transfers. "Log shipping to our remote site had a big effect on bandwidth usage during working hours. The native log backups weren t small, and transferring this data every 30 minutes was painful. "In this respect, the compression feature of SQL Backup Pro has been a lifesaver. During the initial backup of one of our 25GB production databases, SQL Backup Pro was able to compress the backup file by 92%, meaning we could transfer this backup much quicker than before. "Subsequent log file backups are now compressed to less than 500KB and we ve also reduced the interval between backups from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. Even with this increased frequency, we don t even notice that backups are taking place over the WAN now." 5

6 Having an overview of performance "SQL Monitor has also been fantastic. "It alerts us to any backup issues or performance concerns, at which point we have a great overview - both live and through the baseline historic performance logs. "In fact, immediately following installation, we were alerted to the fact that we had missed a number of databases from our backup schedules, and with SQL Backup Pro, we had that fixed in moments. "Without that monitoring in place, we may not have been aware of missed backups for a long time." Sleeping easy "Although I m still personally spending time playing with these tools and learning how to get the best from them, I ve already noticed that I am spending less time managing our SQL Server environment than before. "I can also sleep easier at night and not worry about backups taking place or being verified, because I know that SQL Backup Pro and SQL Monitor will alert me to any failures or missed backups." 6