January 7, 2009 at 8:11 am
I am looking to put 3 instances of SQL2K5 (x86) on a single server (32GB RAM, 1 TB local storage) with the intention of having each as a named instance for DEV / TST / UAT environments. They are unlikely to be in parrallel use (given their nature) and I am happy configuring the memory allocations for each.
Are there any gotchas I need to look out for? For example if I have all services on all instances running as Local System account - will this trip me up later?
Any other hints or pre-flight checks would be very welcome.
Thanks.
January 7, 2009 at 8:46 am
The only real issue I see is the use of 32 bit SQL. You have 32GB of RAM and will get to access a whopping 3GB of physical RAM. Everything else will get accessed through AWE (if at all). AWE is pretty inefficient and can only be used for certain types of operations. Staying 32bit is going to be a big limiting factor - especially when you consider each instance will have to take up some physical RAM just to be running.
It's time to leap into the next century and switch to 64 bit...
Beyond that, having three instances running on one machine is usually not an issue. You will possibly have your entire server lock up or crash because of something happening on DEV - so your environments could impact each other, but the risk is minimal and as long as you are not impacting production, you are probably ok.
January 7, 2009 at 8:52 am
Michael Earl (1/7/2009)
It's time to leap into the next century and switch to 64 bit...
I hear you, but not my decision. Since this is effectively a dev server, it has to mirror production, and those boys ain't changing any time soon.
Comments appreciated
January 7, 2009 at 8:57 am
No real issues, though be careful that some things, like SSIS, aren't multi-instance. There's one copy for all instances. If you use that, could be an issue.
Memory is your real limiting factor. If you can live with the performance, you should be OK. No issues with LocalService for all instances.
January 7, 2009 at 9:06 am
OK that's encouraging as this was a real blind spot for me. Thanks!!
January 7, 2009 at 11:21 am
And beware when you are creating linked server, if there are any 🙂
January 7, 2009 at 11:32 am
- Set up your service account security decently.
Give each instance its own set of accounts, also keep at least sql-user-passwords different per instance.
- also keep in mind, by applying e.g. sp3 you'll have to reboot the server to activate components. Some components are shared by the instances ! (client/xml6/..)
in case you actually want 24/7 availability (prod mirror ??), that may be an issue.
- if needed, install WSRM to "guarantee" instance processor capacity when needed.
Johan
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