August 4, 2010 at 2:49 am
Hi Everyone,
With my current SQL Server 2005 Std Polyserve Cluster I can only install up to 50 instances of SQL Server on each server. I get an unexpected failure (with little else in the way of information) when I attempt to install more than 50. We do not run 50 instances concurrently obviously but each server has to have a corresponding install of an instance to enable its failover. So the physical limitation of 50 installs actually means my scaling options are limited to buying more servers rather than less but bigger servers.
We are planning to upgrade the cluster to SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, for other reasons, but I still see a limit of 50 instances on this edition of SQL Server.
After all that background my question is this: For 2008 Ent R2 is the 50 instance limit actually concurrently running instances or an installation limit?
Thanks in advance,
Chris
August 4, 2010 at 5:30 am
Microsoft documentation reads as below.
50 instances on a stand-alone server for all SQL Server editions.
SQL Server supports 25 instances on a failover cluster.
Pradeep Adiga
Blog: sqldbadiaries.com
Twitter: @pradeepadiga
August 4, 2010 at 5:47 am
The most instances I had ever run on one server was 5 let alone 25 or 50??? Why?
August 4, 2010 at 9:15 am
Pradeep - I have seen that line many times before but it doesn't answer my question. Is the limit of 50 the maximum number of concurrently running instances OR the maximum number of instance installs?
Twinsoft - The cluster as whole runs 50 instances of sql, each node dependant on spec will run a subset of these instances. To allow each service a failover path to every other node in the cluster each must have an installation of sql engine for that purpose
December 14, 2010 at 9:20 pm
Chris,
Did you have any luck installing more than 25 instances of SQL on your cluster?
We're looking at doing a major SQL consolidation effort next year I would like to do something similair to what you are doing... installing 40-50 SQL instances on a 3 node (large node verses more nodes) cluster. Sounds like Microsoft is limiting us on our options though.
Also, how are did you partition your local drives out for your cluster? Are you using mount points?
Thanks,
Jamey
- JH
January 4, 2011 at 4:03 am
J Hines (12/14/2010)
Chris,Did you have any luck installing more than 25 instances of SQL on your cluster?
We have over 50 instances installed on a 4 node Polyserve Cluster. The maximum you can intall on 1 machine is 50 instances. So each instance can only failover to either 1 or 2 other nodes.
We're looking at doing a major SQL consolidation effort next year I would like to do something similair to what you are doing... installing 40-50 SQL instances on a 3 node (large node verses more nodes) cluster. Sounds like Microsoft is limiting us on our options though.
Also, how are did you partition your local drives out for your cluster? Are you using mount points?
In our Polyserve cluster we have a RAID 1 C: for OS and installs, a RAID 1 D: for pagefile, temp folders.
We don't use mount points, had some issues but I can't remember what they were. Polyserve is fantastic software for consolidation but beware at the moment, they have no support for 2008 R2 and they are being very poor at releasing any information about the roadmap for the software.
Thanks,
Jamey
January 4, 2011 at 9:34 am
If you were happy to go down the VM route, the license allows you to install 4 Virtual Machines, EACH of which grants you up to 50 instances, therefore making an upper limit of 200 instances on a single piece of hardware.
November 10, 2011 at 12:20 am
April 10, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Dear Adiga, hi sorry i'm just ordinary guys in sql, i want to ask about limitation in mention 50 instances on standalone server but in below in part SQL Server Utility Objects, maximum instances only 5? i'm so confius about this? it same on your link given.. thanks before
February 3, 2016 at 3:02 am
Each instance of SQL Server consists of a distinct set of services that have specific settings for collations and other options. The directory structure, registry structure, and service names all reflect the instance name and a specific instance ID created during SQL Server Setup.
February 3, 2016 at 3:04 am
Please note: 5-year old thread
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
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