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Virtual or Physical

  • February 2, 2012 at 4:44 pm

    #391469

    Currently we have most of our SQL servers using physical servers, only a couple of them are virtual servers.

    As my experience, if the application uses a lot of RAM, a lot of concurrent user connections, then I will choose a physical server, but for small applications virtual servers are fine as long as it is given enough memory and CPU.

    We have some disagreement here in our company to use virtual servers or phyiscal servers in our environment for SQL server, and because sometimes we are lack of budget, we are considering using more virtual servers.

    I am given a task to investigate if it is good to use virtual servers for SQL servers.

    Any experience?

    Any good article to recommend?

    Thanks

  • February 2, 2012 at 4:58 pm

    #1442148

    if exists (old reports of database_size report, utilization report,no.of user connections)

    will help this here

    compare it with current enviornmet and analyze.

    Regards,
    Shivrudra W

  • February 2, 2012 at 5:03 pm

    #1442150

    http://www.google.com/search?q=virtualization+%22SQL+Server%22

    I stopped checking after 3 pages of relevant results.

    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

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

  • February 2, 2012 at 5:22 pm

    #1442156

    I would also like to know the exprience of DBAs who are using virtual boxes comparing with physical

    Thanks

  • February 2, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    #1442162

    I haven't had much trouble with my SQL Servers on Virtual Environment.

    Bru Medishetty

    Blog -- LearnSQLWithBru

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  • February 2, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    #1442172

    If you are using VMware ask your vendor for a copy of the SQL Server on VMware Solution Kit. It's about 20GB zipped, but there's a lot of good information in it. Any VMware vendor should have this.

    Things like: You definitely lose some CPU resources when running in a VM but it only becomes an issue under high CPU usage. You don't want to use Locked Pages in Memory if you are over allocating memory as this interferes with the VMs ability to shift memory around.

    I found the SQL Server on VMware - Best Practices Guide.pdf and the Performance and Scalability pdf (in the Technical tools folder) worth reading.

    Cheers

    Leo

    Leo
    Nothing in life is ever so complicated that with a little work it can't be made more complicated.

  • February 3, 2012 at 12:18 am

    #1442216

    It depends on many factors, including IO, CPU usage, as well as SAN performance.

    I've had some success with low/medium use databases in a virtual environment, as well as some disasters for servers that were virtualized with very high IO.

  • February 3, 2012 at 5:17 am

    #1442340

    I've done both. The fact is, virtuals run slower. You have to know that going in. They always do. They always will. You're placing a layer of obfuscation between you and the CPU/Memory. Other than that though, there are a lot of advantages. The key is, you need to change your monitoring to ensure you're watching the right stuff so you know if you're suffering in the VM or not.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

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