Using FlashArray Volume Snapshots with Microsoft SQL Server
FlashArray volume snapshots are an amazing tool for any DBA/DBRE managing SQL Server. You can use them to: Instantly recover from user errors or ransomware attacks Create rapid dev/test copies without full restores Offload CHECKDB to another host to avoid production performance hits Refresh reporting environments on demand Seed Always On availability groups faster, without large full backups Enable point-in-time recovery when paired with SQL log backups And the best part? Snapshots on FlashArray are: Immutable Space-efficient Fast to create and restore Fully automatable through the REST API or SDK tools! I worked very closely with our SQL Server field super stars (Anthony Nocentino, Andrew Pruski and Andrew Yun) on a white paper going VERY deep into the architecture and how to. It includes everything from crash- vs. application-consistent snapshots, to step-by-step restore and cloning procedures, to using SQL Server 2022’s new T-SQL snapshot backup. Did we miss anything ? Let us know!New Reference Architecture: SQL Server on Azure VM's with Pure Cloud Block Store
This is a brand new, weeks-old reference architecture — and I’m really excited about this one. During development, one of the most surprising discoveries was just how much Azure VM performance is limited by the IOPS cap tied to managed disks. It caught me off guard how much planning it takes just to size storage and compute together when you go the native route. With CBS, I was able to bypass those constraints. It felt more like working with enterprise storage (which is what its meant to do!) , I could pull from a pool, scale performance independently of VM size, and provision storage volumes in a clean and easy way. This new RA covers: SQL Server architecture on Azure VMs with Pure Cloud Block Store Snapshot-based backup and restore DR patterns using ActiveDR™ and HA using ActiveCluster™ Dev/test database cloning with volume snapshots Performance benchmarking vs. Azure Premium SSD v2 It prooved: ~40% more transactional throughput (TPROC-C) ~93% better analytical query performance (TPROC-H) (using queries per minute normalization) 3–5x data reduction vs. raw data Download the full reference architecture here Would love to hear your thoughts on this architecture and how we could improve the expirience!New SQL Server with Pure Storage Reference Architecture!
We have a new SQL Server with Pure Storage Reference Architecture! It’s been out for a few months, but this is a great start to your journey to a simpler, high-performance database environment! This reference architecture shows how to: Consolidate transactional and analytical SQL Server workloads using FlashArray Use FlashBlade for rapid, parallel T-SQL backups to file or object storage Enable zero-downtime operations with ActiveCluster and near-synchronous replication via ActiveDR With this RA you will find detailed technical guidance for storage provisioning for SQL Server databases on Windows or Linux as well as best practice guidence on how to take the best advantage of the primary storage layer. Check out the full reference architecture here: Optimizing SQL Server Operations and Scale with Pure Storage (PDF) Have feedback, use cases to share, or questions about implementation? Please reach out!Taking Snapshots of Databases on VMFS Datastores
Hey friends - hopefully you all are taking advantage of our snapshots for copy data management? Well, those of you who use VMDKs know that there's an extra headache thanks to the VMFS datastore layer. Fortunately, I've just published some new examples in our Github repository and have written up a solution overview on my blog! Check it out! https://sqlbek.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/taking-snapshots-of-databases-on-vmfs-datastores/ Github: Refresh VMFS VMDK(s) with Snapshot Point in Time Recovery – VMFS
