Sql and Virtualization

  • Hello,

    I have a chance to choose between:

    1. SQL Server 2008 on Windows 2008;

    2. SQL Server 2008 on virtual server 2008 (on core installation);

    What do you think, performance-wise, administration-wise etc. I was even, well, just thinking, of making two SQL Servers on same core, and then make a cluster 🙂 (I know, i know, but as a possibility to move one of them in the future to another box, when I convince management that we need that). Anyway, virtualization looks promising, I don't know, what do you think?

    Brano

  • I would use caution with Microsoft. I say this...I have three of them set up at home for testing and am seeing some good results. Microsoft hasn't completely reached maturity in this area; VMware and Parallels Virtuozzo are a bit further along. I consulted for awhile and set up a Linux host/VMWare set of SQL Servers and they worked ok, but not great. IOPS weren't what we expected, but still outperformed the legacy server.

    Use caution, read white papers, test.

  • Lee has good advice here. Test, test, test.

    Be very careful about IO here. Sharing IO (same disk/array) for two virtual SQL Server can be asking for trouble.

    Clustering two virtual servers on a single physical is a waste of resources. You still have a single point of failure there with the physical. At least cluster the VMs across 2 machines, unless this is just for testing.

  • Thank you, and yes: testing, testing, and testing - most important. And, in addition, of course, to ask experienced guys here, who already tested :-). Hyper-V doesn't have same level like VMWare products (at least VMWare is here far longer), but you know Microsoft, it is like a justice: "slow but reachable" :-).

    Regards,

    Brano

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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