Architecture Best Practices for Staging Targets
Architecture Best Practices / Architecture Best Practices for Staging Targets


Best Practices

This host is called a "staging target" because it has much in common with other targets, such as the remote storage mount to the Delphix virtualization Engine. Because it leverages remote storage over the network, the staging target only needs enough disk capacity for the OS, database application, and any relevant logs or tools. A staging target is a requirement on all platforms that Delphix supports except Oracle, but you can also use it for Oracle to replay logs leveraging validated sync.

Memory and CPU

  1. 32 GB RAM minimum
  2. 4 vCPU minimum

General Guidance for Staging Servers (Multi-platform)

  1. Delphix recommends dedicated Staging servers for role / architecture separation. However, any Target server can be used as Staging.
  2. In cases where the same server is used as both Staging and Target, we strongly recommend a dedicated instance/install for staging to avoid confusion.
  3. Delphix recommends at least one Staging server per Delphix Engine to avoid the possibility of a single point of failure across multiple engines.

  4. If a staging server is shared among multiple Delphix Engines, please ensure that a dedicated SQL Server Instance is created for each Delphix Engine.

  5. Configuration / performance factors:
    1. Transaction log generation rate.

    2. Number of VDBs.

      Precise guidance on these items has not yet been defined. In general, if there is a heavy log generation rate and few VDBs, the ideal recommendation is to have at least 1 Staging Target per Delphix Engine.

Disk / Local storage

  1. The only local storage needed is for the OS and application with default databases.
  2. Storage for a staging database is provided from the Delphix Engine, which is mounted over the network similar to any Target host (NFS/iSCSI).
  3. If the customer has a standard DB server build, their standard storage sizing is probably fine. 
  4. If a recommendation is still needed, suggest 30GB for OS and application and any tools needed.

Network requirements

  1. The Staging Target engages in network data transfers between Staging and the Source backup shared location as well as between Staging and the Delphix Engine.
  2. The Staging Target is also a Target server, and as such should have < 1ms latency to the Delphix Engine (and low latency to the Source backup, when possible).
  3. If the change rate on the Source database(s) is > 1 Gb/sec, the recommended network bandwidth to support network transfers is 10 Gb/sec. 
  4. In cases where only 1 Gb/sec network bandwidth is available, segregation of each network is recommended to reduce network contention.
  5. Ensure that the virtual NIC is using the standard vmxnet3 adapter and not Intel for VMWare based clients. Logical IO errors have been reported while using Intel instead of vmxnet3 adapter.

Windows and MSSQL Specific

  1. An MSSQL Server Instance used for Staging should not be clustered.
  2. Staging should not be hosted on Windows 2003 - extended support ended July 14, 2015. It is also the first Windows version with iSCSI support and is not ideal.
  3. The SQL Server Instances hosted on the Staging Target should have a Maximum Memory set . Also ensure that at all times, at least 10% of total memory is available for OS operations.
  4. Only system databases (Master/MSDB/Temp/MSDB) are kept on local storage. All other data is read/written to the Delphix Engine.
  5. Windows iSCSI configuration and limits for v2p, target and staging hosts.
  6. Ensure that Receive Side Scaling (RSS)  is enabled on every network interface that Delphix will be connecting to.