Balancing resources in Activity Trends to decommission a server

Decommissioning a server is a special case of workload balancing in which everything outside the default pin list is moved from the server. The databases that remain, which may still account for significant activity, are either system databases or databases that are typically installed on every server, such as templates or help files. In most cases the latter group will be the same on every server, with the possible exception of unread marks.

About this task

Use these guidelines to decommission a server:

Procedure

  1. Edit the server properties and do the following:
    • Set the server as "source only" to prevent Activity Trends from moving any databases to it.
    • Set the server capacity to 0% for the unit you are using as the primary balancing goal.
  2. When specifying which databases can move, use the default pin list so that Activity Trends relocates all databases other than the system databases and the databases installed on every server. You can also use an empty pin list since system databases are always pinned.