Attaching a Reporting Database as a Scalable Shared Database

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After a reporting database is built or refreshed on a set of reporting volumes and the volumes are marked as read-only and dismounted from the production server, the attach phase can begin. Essentially, the attach phase involves mounting the reporting volumes on reporting servers and attaching the reporting database. This phase establishes a reporting database as a scalable shared database.

The Steps of the Attach Phase

In this phase, you must:

  1. Unmask the logical unit number (LUN) corresponding to each reporting volume to make the volume accessible to the production server. To do this, use your hardware vendor's utilities. If the database uses multiple reporting volumes, perform this step for each of the volumes.

  2. Mount the volume corresponding to a LUN on each of the reporting servers.

    Note

    To simplify the process of building or updating a reporting database, we recommend always mounting its reporting volume using the same drive letter as the production volume. For example, if a volume of the production database is on drive E of the production server, the corresponding reporting volume should be mounted on drive E of each of the reporting servers.

    To use the DiskPart utility to mount a volume, enter the following commands at the Windows Command Prompt:
    DiskPart
    DISKPART> select volume=<drive-number>
    DISKPART> assign letter=<drive-letter>
    DISKPART> exit
    Where <drive-number> is the volume number assigned by the Windows operating system and <drive-letter> is the letter you want to use for the reporting volume on the reporting server. If the database uses multiple reporting volumes, perform this step for each of the volumes.
    As a best practice, after mounting a set of reporting volumes to each of the reporting servers, you should validate that the volume is accessible as a read-only volume over the storage area network (SAN). For more information, see Ensuring a Correct Environment for a Scalable Shared Database.

  3. Attach the database to one or more server instances on each of the reporting servers.
    For more information, see:

The reporting database is now available as a scalable shared database, and queries can proceed.

Note

The attach phase is the last phase of the update cycle for a given set of reporting volumes. However, you can use two, alternate sets of reporting volumes for the stale and fresh versions of a reporting database. This allows you to overlap the detach and update phases of the two sets of volumes. For more information, see Maximizing Availability of a Scalable Shared Database.

See Also

Concepts

Overview of Scalable Shared Databases
Ensuring a Correct Environment for a Scalable Shared Database
Building or Refreshing a Reporting Database
Detaching a Scalable Shared Database
Maximizing Availability of a Scalable Shared Database

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance

Change History

Release History

5 December 2005
New content:
  • Added this topic about the new scalable shared database feature.