Microsoft SQL Server versions change every few years. And you need upgrades for security and cumulative updates (CU) even more often. With in-place upgrades that leveraging zero-footprint clones and workload simulations, Pure Storage® can make those upgrades easier, safer, and more predictable than ever before.
Benefit from In-place Upgrades
With limited additional space and no options for net new hardware, upgrades of any kind are challenging, making in-place upgrades an appealing concept. It can be as simple as two steps to success in many scenarios. If necessary, you can do a simple rollback in just a few seconds. In-place upgrades are often not an option due to their high-risk nature and long recovery times. With zero-footprint clone, you can do a version or CU upgrade faster than you may realize.
Workload Simulation
Use the Workload Planner in Pure1®—the SaaS tool for all Pure fleets—to get projections for future workloads as well simulations to modify existing array workloads. You can adjust the projection from one month to one year and switch between daily tactical decisions and long-term strategic ones. You can simulate Scaling workloads, represented by any set of volumes up or down based on a multiplier.
You can also simulate cloning and migrating workloads across different arrays in your fleet. This allows you to optimize your existing environment, simulate unplanned growth, and make balance between upgrading hardware or moving workloads around.
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Figure 1. The Pure1 workload simulator provides capabilities of the scale, clone, and migrate workload features
You can see all the volumes on an array, plus performance metrics like bandwidth, latency, and IOPS. In addition, you can see the analyzed capacity data to come with a measure of estimated space used by each volume. These metrics are very useful as you plan upgrades to decide whether you need additional capacity for the upgrade but into the future as well.
Additional Resources
• Learn more about Pure solutions for Microsoft.
• Explore the features and benefits of Pure1.
