SQL Question from Buffalo

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RAW Partitions in SQL 2005

An attendee from the Buffalo Best of SQL 2005 Launch event posted this question to my blog.

:This is Rao Setty from Buffalo NY. I hope you remember me from TechNet @ Buffalo on 11/10/05. I told you I'm going to post some questions regarding SQL Server 2005 since there is limited time available and you suggested me to post in the blog.

"My questions are is SQL Server 2005 is "Yukon" , if so I heard that I supports RAW filed systems as ours is a complex SAN environment with other RDBMS, it is easy for me to administer database devices over SAN with RAW files as opposed to NTFS. .. Is there any WP's or Tech docs available on line could you direct them to me."

Yes 2005 is Yukon and yes RAW partitions have been supported since 2000. The documentation is not posted yet for 2005, but from the 2000 on line resoucres:

H. Use raw partitions

This example creates a database called Employees using raw partitions. The raw partitions must exist when the statement is executed, and only one file can go on each raw partition.

 USE master
GO
CREATE DATABASE Employees
ON 
( NAME = Empl_dat,
   FILENAME = 'f:',
   SIZE = 10,
   MAXSIZE = 50,
   FILEGROWTH = 5 )
LOG ON
( NAME = 'Sales_log',
   FILENAME = 'g:',
   SIZE = 5MB,
   MAXSIZE = 25MB,
   FILEGROWTH = 5MB )
GO
I. Use mounted drives

This example creates a database called Employees using mounted drives pointing to raw partitions. This feature is available only in Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server. The mounted drives and raw partitions must exist when the statement is executed, and only one file can go on each raw partition. When creating a database file on a mounted drive, a trailing backslash (\) must end the drive path.

 USE master
GO
CREATE DATABASE Employees
ON 
( NAME = Empl_dat,
   FILENAME = 'd:\sample data dir\',
   SIZE = 10,
   MAXSIZE = 50,
   FILEGROWTH = 5 )
LOG ON
( NAME = 'Sales_log',
   FILENAME = 'd:\sample log dir\',
   SIZE = 5MB,
   MAXSIZE = 25MB,
   FILEGROWTH = 5MB )
GO

 See the full document here https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/tsqlref/ts_create_1up1.asp

I want to thank Keith Combs  for tracking down the answer to Rao's question, thanks, Keith.