Clustering with Virtualization

Question

Post reply

Clustering with Virtualization

SQL*

SSCertifiable

Points: 6638
More actions
July 2, 2012 at 3:27 am

#260668

Hi,
Is it possible to prepare the clustering environment on the same machine with different OS (OS Virtualization)?
Thank you,
🙂

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

M&M SSC-Insane Points: 21700 More actions · Answer 1

Just check if this helps?

Creating a 2 node sql server cluster[/url]

M&M

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736255 More actions · Answer 2

If you mean can you build a Windows/SQL cluster in a VM, yes. That's what is running the SQLServerCentral servers.

We have two virtual machines running Windows 2008 and SQL Server 2008, on separate physical hosts.

Nicholas Cain SSC-Dedicated Points: 33009 More actions · Answer 3

And if you mean build a cluster on a single machine by creating multiple virtual hosts (for testing purposes as you'd never want to do that in production) then the answer is emphatically yes. I use that kind of setup for demoing clustered SQL instance on my laptop.

Shamless self promotion - read my blog http://sirsql.net

Perry Whittle SSC Guru Points: 234013 More actions · Answer 4

my guide, linked by Mohammed, shows you all you need to know

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

SQL* SSCertifiable Points: 6638 More actions · Answer 5

Thank you so much,

Is there any benefits having the Clustering on VM?

will it degrade the performance (my thought was as we are sharing the hardware between two OS's obviously it will degrade the performance & as i am thinking we can also do the virtualisation for Hardware is it give any performance)

Thank you,

🙂

dan-572483 SSCoach Points: 15870 More actions · Answer 6

Nicholas,

Just curious, what are the specs on your laptop & VMs? I've thought about clustering VMs on my home computer for self-training purposes, but I'm concerned about maxing out the RAM and degrading performance too much to be useful. I'd prefer to use Server 2008 in my VMs since that's what we mostly have at work, but with a 4GB host I think I'd have to stick with Server 2003 for decent performance.

Dan

Elliott Whitlow SSC Guru Points: 102402 More actions · Answer 7

SQL* (7/2/2012)
Thank you so much,
Is there any benefits having the Clustering on VM?
will it degrade the performance (my thought was as we are sharing the hardware between two OS's obviously it will degrade the performance & as i am thinking we can also do the virtualisation for Hardware is it give any performance)
Thank you,

Like all VM based installations you have to consider other VM's on the hardware CAN affect performance. And the different virtualization products have different levels of impact the performance of the VMs. Those like VMWare ESX have some of the lowest impacts, those running on windows have more of an impact.

I have built this on my laptop a couple of times to demo or test an idea. However my question is that if this virtualized cluster would be alone on the hardware why virtualize it in the first place?

Also keep in mind SQL requires shared disks for clustering. This proved to be one of the trickier things for me to setup locally, I eventually ended up adding the MS iSCSI target to my domain controller (on a local VM) to provide the shared disks. And on a laptop running 4 VMs, 1 DC/filer and 3 clustered nodes I was fighting for memory..

CEWII

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736255 More actions · Answer 8

One benefit of the clustering on a VM is hardware abstraction. This can be handy for DR, and also for not worrying about HCL parts on the list. If you need to fail over a node, or add a 3rd one, it's easier in a VM.

The hypervisor penalty is really low. I think the modern hypervisors are like 2-3%, which isn't much.

Nicholas Cain SSC-Dedicated Points: 33009 More actions · Answer 9

dan-572483 (7/3/2012)
Nicholas,
Just curious, what are the specs on your laptop & VMs? I've thought about clustering VMs on my home computer for self-training purposes, but I'm concerned about maxing out the RAM and degrading performance too much to be useful. I'd prefer to use Server 2008 in my VMs since that's what we mostly have at work, but with a 4GB host I think I'd have to stick with Server 2003 for decent performance.
Dan

I have 8GB of RAM on my laptop and 16GB on my desktop. I would see about performing a RAM upgrade, that will make a world of difference. The other thing of significance is to put your VMs on SSD. I now run two SSDs in my laptop and the VMs humm along very happily.

Shamless self promotion - read my blog http://sirsql.net

Perry Whittle SSC Guru Points: 234013 More actions · Answer 10

dan-572483 (7/3/2012)
Nicholas,
Just curious, what are the specs on your laptop & VMs? I've thought about clustering VMs on my home computer for self-training purposes, but I'm concerned about maxing out the RAM and degrading performance too much to be useful. I'd prefer to use Server 2008 in my VMs since that's what we mostly have at work, but with a 4GB host I think I'd have to stick with Server 2003 for decent performance.
Dan

I have an HP Pavillion DV7 with quad core i7 proc and 8GB RAM and i can quite happily run around 6 low spec VMs or 4 with higher memory allocations. Using my guide linked above, i use a Windows 2008 core installation domain controller, a FreeBSD virtual SAN box and 2 Windows 2008 cluster nodes which connect to the virtual SAN via MicroSoft iSCSI initiator.

Also check out my article on MS iSCSI initiator at this link[/url]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉