October 9, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Is it possible to have a setup running SQL 2005 & 2008 in a 2 node cluster?
Thanks
Pete
October 9, 2012 at 10:26 pm
It is possible to run SQL Server 2005 and 2008 instance on Two Node Cluster.
October 9, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Maybe I should have been a bit more specific. If it is possible, is there a "best practise" to do this. Can we still use a passive / active setup or would we be better of using passive / passive?
What I was thinking about is have a 2 node cluster setup where server A has an active SQL 2008 instance and a passive 2005 instance.
Server B would have an active 2005 instance and a passive 2008. This way both servers would be utilised properly during normal operations. Only when a server falls over, the other server has to bear the load of 2 active instances.
Not sure if something like this is doable or - just as important - manageable.
Thanks.
October 10, 2012 at 1:17 am
pwillemsen (10/9/2012)
Maybe I should have been a bit more specific. If it is possible, is there a "best practise" to do this. Can we still use a passive / active setup or would we be better of using passive / passive?What I was thinking about is have a 2 node cluster setup where server A has an active SQL 2008 instance and a passive 2005 instance.
Server B would have an active 2005 instance and a passive 2008. This way both servers would be utilised properly during normal operations. Only when a server falls over, the other server has to bear the load of 2 active instances.
Not sure if something like this is doable or - just as important - manageable.
Thanks.
Windows 2008 or 2008 R2?
What Service pack level?
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"Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉
October 10, 2012 at 5:19 pm
That would be on 2 servers running Windows 2008 R2 SP1.
October 15, 2012 at 12:20 am
Sounds fairly straight forward to me.
Basically, each SQL Server instance is set up as a separate installation and should not interfere with other instances as long as you have enough system resources to keep everybody happy. I don't see any problems here as long as you keep in mind that the new features in 2008 won't be available when working with the 2005 instance. 😉
Vegard Hagen
Norwegian DBA, occasional blogger and generally a nice guy who believes the world is big enough for all of us.
@vegard_hagen on Twitter
Blog: Vegards corner (No actual SQL stuff here - havent found my niche yet. Maybe some day...)
October 16, 2012 at 4:13 am
only problem will occur when you are testing failover since all of the new features of 2008 instance will not be available and you may face issue with jobs and alerts and also your log backup strategy should be changed while switching.
October 17, 2012 at 5:44 am
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Hagen, Can you please explain a bit more of what could be the problem.
October 17, 2012 at 5:50 am
ambesh.bharadwaj (10/16/2012)
only problem will occur when you are testing failover since all of the new features of 2008 instance will not be available and you may face issue with jobs and alerts and also your log backup strategy should be changed while switching.
Actually, that is not true because both instances would be installed on both cluster nodes, only running on one at a time. So, when the 2008 instance fails over, it will still be the 2008 instance with all the 2008 features, only running on a different physical node. 🙂
Vegard Hagen
Norwegian DBA, occasional blogger and generally a nice guy who believes the world is big enough for all of us.
@vegard_hagen on Twitter
Blog: Vegards corner (No actual SQL stuff here - havent found my niche yet. Maybe some day...)
October 17, 2012 at 5:55 am
dbasql79 (10/17/2012)
[Hagen, Can you please explain a bit more of what could be the problem.
It's not necessarily a problem, just something you'll need to be aware of.
Each new version has its new features and slightly modified ways of doing things. I imagine you would be using the 2008 version of SQL Server Management Studio to connect to both instances, since... well, basically because you can and why use two different tools when one will work for both cases? I was just saying that you need to be aware of the fact that 2008 features will not be available for the 2005 instance, even if you use 2008 client tools to connect to it.
Vegard Hagen
Norwegian DBA, occasional blogger and generally a nice guy who believes the world is big enough for all of us.
@vegard_hagen on Twitter
Blog: Vegards corner (No actual SQL stuff here - havent found my niche yet. Maybe some day...)
October 17, 2012 at 2:23 pm
The only things I think you may need to watch out for are:
- Instance names: You can only have one default instance on a server. It might be better to make both instances named instances
- Volumes: Your disk resources should be unique for each instance. You do not want a scenario where both instances are hosted on the same node and both are trying to bring up disk resources with the same drive letters/paths
- Memory: Again, in the event that both instances are hosted on the same node SQL and/or Windows does not have a mechanism to check for memory over-allocation. So you need to ensure that either there is enough memory on the nodes to handle both instances simultaneously or set the max server memory options on the instances to where they are not fighting over memory on the node
Joie Andrew
"Since 1982"
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