Provision SQL Server environments with multiple OCI Block Volumes, automated multipath configuration, optional RAID, and repeatable Infrastructure as Code for performance testing, migration validation, and production-ready deployments.
Modern SQL Server deployments demand more than simply provisioning a virtual machine. Whether you’re benchmarking storage performance, validating migration architectures, or preparing a production-ready database environment, configuring storage correctly is critical to achieving predictable performance and operational resilience.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provides high-performance Block Volumes that can be attached through multiple paths for improved resiliency and throughput. However, manually provisioning compute instances, attaching dozens of volumes, configuring iSCSI multipath, creating RAID arrays, formatting file systems, and installing SQL Server quickly becomes repetitive and time-consuming.
To simplify this process, we published the MSSQL Multi-Path Attached Volume Sample, an Infrastructure-as-Code solution that automates the deployment of SQL Server storage environments on OCI using Terraform.
Instead of spending time preparing infrastructure, administrators can deploy a repeatable SQL Server environment in minutes and focus on what matters most—testing, benchmarking, and optimizing their workloads.
The challenge
Every database administrator has experienced it.
A new performance test is requested. Storage needs to be resized. Additional block volumes must be attached. RAID needs rebuilding. Mount points need updating. SQL Server paths must be reconfigured.
Before any benchmarking begins, significant time is spent preparing the environment.
The larger the environment becomes, the greater the opportunity for inconsistencies between deployments, making benchmark comparisons less reliable.
Infrastructure automation removes that variability.
By defining the entire storage architecture as code, every deployment is built the same way—every time.
Solution architecture
The following architecture illustrates the automated deployment workflow.
Key Benefits
- Accelerate deployment – Provision complete SQL Server environments in minutes instead of hours.
- Improve consistency – Every deployment follows the same validated storage configuration.
- Reduce manual effort – Automate storage provisioning, multipath configuration, RAID creation, and SQL Server installation.
- Benchmark with confidence – Eliminate environmental differences between performance tests.
- Infrastructure as Code – Version-controlled, repeatable deployments that can easily be customized.
This open-source Terraform solution automates the infrastructure required to deploy SQL Server with multiple OCI Block Volumes configured for high-performance storage testing.
The automation provisions:
- OCI Compute instances
- Multiple OCI Block Volumes
- Volume attachments
- Linux iSCSI multipath configuration
- Windows iSCSI or paravirtualized attachments
- RAID-0 striped volumes (optional)
- File system creation and mounting
- Microsoft SQL Server installation
- SQL Server storage directory configuration
The resulting environment is immediately ready for workload deployment, database migration testing, or storage benchmarking.
Best Practice
Treat benchmark environments exactly like production infrastructure.
Using Infrastructure as Code ensures storage layouts, RAID configurations, mount points, and SQL Server settings remain consistent across every deployment, producing more reliable benchmark results and simplifying operational management.
Built for performance evaluation
Although the solution installs SQL Server, its primary purpose is enabling storage validation and performance testing.
Typical use cases include:
- Storage benchmarking
- Migration proof of concepts
- Performance tuning
- SQL Server lab environments
- Block Volume performance evaluation
- Storage architecture validation
- Repeatable customer demonstrations
Get started
The complete solution—including Terraform modules, deployment examples, and documentation—is available here.
Conclusion
Automating SQL Server storage deployment on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure helps teams move faster, reduce configuration drift, and create consistent environments for testing and validation. With Terraform, OCI Block Volumes, and automated multipath configuration, you can quickly stand up repeatable SQL Server deployments that are ready for benchmarking, migration assessments, and performance tuning.