Curt,
> (MS SQL Server on Windows NT is a notable exception to this. They do,
> however, make you pre-create the data file in advance, and they suggest
> doing it on an empty partition, which at the very least would get you
> long stretches of the file in contiguous order. They may also be using
> tricks to make sure the file gets created in contiguous order, or they
> may be able to get information from the OS about the physical block
> numbers corresponding to logical block numbers in the file.)
MSSQL is, in fact, doing some kind of direct-block-addressing. If you
attempt to move a partition on the disk containing MSSQL databases, SQL
Server will crash on restart and be unrecoverable ... even if the other files
on that disk are fine. Nor can you back up MSSQL by using disk imaging,
unless you can recover to an identical model disk/array.
--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco