The management of business critical environments is becoming increasingly complex, and this can include a growing number of database servers.
Specifically, in the case of Microsoft® SQL Server™, applications have traditionally been built on a “one application, one server” basis or have proliferated through line-of business deployments which it can be difficult to manage and plan.
The first step in ensuring your SQL platform is supported, performing and moving to a pro-active operational model or locating opportunities for consolidation is a current state assessment.
What is the SQL Assessment?
The SQL Assessment is a technical current state assessment of your SQL Server estate. The deliverables include:
An inventory of SQL Server instances; databases; operating systems; hardware; large databases
Comparison of server and database configuration to Microsoft Best Practises and at risk configurations
Highlighting servers with performance risks based on user numbers, CPU, disk, locking or query usage
A high level assessment of the opportunity for consolidation and potential resource savings
Details of service availability metrics
Capacity Planning details on user base and total resource utilisation
Patch Management assessment
How long is an Assessment engagement?
The SQL Assessment is five day engagement within a simple environment and ten day engagement within a complex environment, including a number of days’ on-site collecting data, meeting to review findings and discussions in relation to next steps.
There are some pre-requisites to be met such as administrator level access to the SQL Servers and permission to scan all or part of the network from a single workstation (details can be provided on request).