Home > Storage > PowerStore > Databases and Data Analytics > Dell PowerStore: Microsoft SQL Server Best Practices > Creating volumes
PowerStore is virtualized to take advantage of all the drives in the appliance, and in addition there are many types of files that are part of a SQL Server instance. These types of data often have different performance and snapshot requirements. For performance-sensitive applications, Dell Technologies recommends creating at least five volumes for an instance of SQL Server as shown in the following table.
File type | Number of volumes per instance | Typical performance requirements | Typical snapshot requirements |
User DB data | 1+ | Lower performance may be acceptable | Frequent snapshots, same volume group as log volumes |
User DB transaction log | 1+ | High performance required | Frequent snapshots, same volume group as data volumes |
Data root directory (includes system DBs) | 1 | Lower performance may be acceptable | Infrequent snapshots, independent schedule |
Tempdb data and transaction log | 1 | High performance required | No snapshots |
Native SQL Server backup | 1 | Lower performance may be acceptable | Snapshots optional, independent schedule |
Memory-optimized filegroup (if used) | 1+ | High performance required | Frequent snapshots, same schedule as log volume |
Associate databases that span multiple LUNs within a volume group. This helps ensure that other features such as snapshots, replication, and thin clones will be configured properly and maintain data consistency.
There is a balance between manageability and performance that is unique to each environment. Generally, fewer volumes are easier to manage while more volumes enable better performance and optimize for advanced features such as storage replication, filegroup backups, and piecemeal restores.
Performance critical volumes can be added to a Watchlist for enhanced visibility. To do this, select the volumes and under the More Actions menu, select Add to Watchlist.
Once the volumes are added to the Watchlist, they will appear on the main PowerStore Dashboard. This provides some basic performance data as well as the ability to navigate directly to them by clicking the volume name.
You can also add hosts to the Watchlist in the same manner. If you add a host that already has volumes on the list, those volumes will be combined under the host.