Benefits of Windows Server 2012?

  • At my current employer, the majority of our SQL servers are 2008/2008 R2. I will be leading an effort to migrate to SQL Server 2014. We also run these instances on Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP2. From a SQL Server perspective, are there advantages of migrating to Windows Server 2012? Apologies if this is not the correct forum for this, please correct me if not.

    Thanks,

    Clint

  • Clint-525719 (12/7/2015)


    At my current employer, the majority of our SQL servers are 2008/2008 R2. I will be leading an effort to migrate to SQL Server 2014. We also run these instances on Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP2. From a SQL Server perspective, are there advantages of migrating to Windows Server 2012? Apologies if this is not the correct forum for this, please correct me if not.

    Thanks,

    Clint

    If you're using failover clustering then there's real benefits to using Windows 2012 R2, the clustering subsystem has been greatly improved.

    Having said that, you always want to be deploying the latest supported OS anyway, so even if not clustering there's no reason not to deploy Windows 2012 R2.

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

  • Less impressive but worth mentioning... There are some notable powershell, enhancements in 2012 that make managing your server a little easier (for those that use powershell).

    "I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

    -- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001

  • Reinforcing what Perry said, I recently deployed a new SQL Server on Windows 2012 and found the failover clustering to be much better than it was on Windows 2008.

    Another issue to consider is the life of the product. How long do you want it to run before Microsoft's end of life date? It may or may not be important to you (I know some people who still have SQL 2000 running) but it's at least worth considering.

  • where possible move to Windows 2012 R2

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

  • Perry Whittle (12/8/2015)


    where possible move to Windows 2012 R2

    That's what we used. Having never used the non-R2 version, I don't even know what's improved. Our network team selected the OS and I think it works great.

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