Capacity planning for a database server involves a lot of variables. We must account for table count, user activity, compliance storage requirements, indexes, object bloat, maintenance, archival, and more. We may even need to consider application features that do not yet exist. New functionality often brings additional tables, extra storage standards, and increased archival needs. Planning done now may have little relevance to future usage.
So how do we produce functional estimates for disk space with so many uncertain or fluctuating elements? We primarily want to avoid a scenario where we lack sufficient capacity to continue operating. Exhausting disk space results in ignored queries at best, and a completely frozen and difficult to repair database at worst. Neither are the ingredients of a highly available environment.
In this recipe, we will explore a possible...