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Configuring Log and Data Files
Configuring Log and Data Files
Data Files
Data Files can be further broken down into two separate types:
2. Secondary Data Files are optional and user-defined. These contain objects and user data. When
administering secondary data files, you can place secondary files on different physical disk drives
for a boost in performance. The “suggested” extension for secondary data files is “.ndf”. Each
database can have zero or more secondary data files.
Best Practice: To reduce disk access contention, you should place all data and objects in secondary files
and keep just the database catalog in the primary file.
Log Files
You must have at least a single transaction log for every database, but you are allowed multiple log files
per database to provide for faster recovery. The “suggested” extension for log files is “.ldf”.
Filegroups
A filegroup is simply a logical structure that allows the grouping of data files for management of multiple
files as a single logical entity. For a performance boost, you can divide database objects across several
filegroups, and place the filegroups on different disk subsystems.
ProProfs.com [CONFIGURING LOG AND DATA FILES IN SQL SERVER]
Primary Filegroup: contains the primary data file and any secondary data files that aren’t
explicitly stored in another filegroup.
User-defined Filegroup: Created to group secondary files, assign database objects to groups.
To edit a filegroup:
Using RAID subsystems provides for improved performance, fault tolerance, and more storage capacity.
- RAID 0: Disk striping, best performance for read/write operations; no fault tolerance.
- RAID 1: Disk mirroring, provides fault tolerance; improves read performance, but can degrade
write performance.
- RAID 5: Disk striping with distributed parity. Improved performance over RAID 1, but more
expensive.
- RAID 10 (RAID 1+0): A mirror of a striped set (combines both speed and fault tolerance)