One of the things that I've had to do in my career is manage large numbers of servers. There was a time when two of us managed several hundred instances of SQL Server, and managed to do it very well with a lot of automation. Recently I saw someone post a note about having 400+ servers to manage, and they were wondering how to perform enterprise management. In Oracle environments, they mentioned using OEM, RMAN and other tools to manage backups centrally and wanted to know what SQL Server solutions were out there.
I know things have changed quite a bit from the SQL Server 2000 days when we had to build all our own tools, so I wanted to ask the question as a poll this Friday:
What do you do for central management of lots of instances?
If you have more than 50 instances, what tools do you use to try and ensure you have a well managed environment. With the addition of the Central Management Server and Policy Based Management to SQL Server, it definitely is easier to handle a larger load of instances
This Friday I'm wondering what tips and techniques you think work well for managing lots of instances. Any tricks you've used? Any third party products that are very handy? Share you knowledge this Friday.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
- Windows Media Podcast - 16.3MB WMV
- iPod Video Podcast - 12.1MB MP4
- MP3 Audio Podcast - 2.9MB MP3
The podcast feeds are available at sqlservercentral.mevio.com. You can also follow Steve Jones on Twitter:
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.