Creating SQL Servers on VMware

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Creating SQL Servers on VMware

Duran

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Points: 13259
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April 29, 2008 at 5:24 am

#121929

Hello,
To cut a long story short, my place is cramped and so I am getting rid of my 3 old desktops and buying a laptop with 4gb RAM and 320gb Sata drive the processor is a Intel Core Duo.
Before I get rid of my desktops, does anybody think I will have trouble studying using VMWare with this hardware setup, I plan on running a 2 virtual 2003 servers within a team, each with SQL server 2005 on. Also, does anybody think I will have problems learning clustering or DB replication and mirroring using VMWare?
Any feedback is much appreciated.
Regards,
Paul.

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Andy sql SSCrazy Eights Points: 9496 More actions · Answer 1

Sounds like a nice-enough laptop, although I'm slightly surprised that it is not a Core 2 Duo?

Certainly VMware will be able to snapshot your current 3 desktops and create Virtual Machines out of them (barring any unusual hardware or unusual drivers you have installed). Your 4GB of RAM should be enough to run 2 VMs, although if the databases are large then it will struggle.

These VMs will enable you to play around with Replication and Mirroring.

I think you are out of luck with Clustering though. To my knowledge, you have to first create a Microsoft Cluster, and then add MSSQL to the Cluster. There are many, many requirements to creating a Microsoft Cluster, and I'm sure running Nodes in a VM is not one of them!

Duran SSChampion Points: 13259 More actions · Answer 2

Hello,

Thanks for your reply. It is indeed a Core 2 duo. Bit of a bugger I wont be able to do the clustering, but there you go. I wont be taking any snapshots of the old machines, I have chosen to just start again and build to new Virtual Servers on it, the databases are just the Adventureworks and Northwind Db's for training, though Im sure I will create a few of my own, so it nothing to strenuous.

Regards,

D.

Andy sql SSCrazy Eights Points: 9496 More actions · Answer 3

If you want the experience of installing MSSQL Server, then a reinstall is worth doing. But otherwise, try doing a snapshot in VM - it is surprisingly easy and quick.

Duran SSChampion Points: 13259 More actions · Answer 4

Hello,

Well the main reason I am redoing the lot is because I plan on going through all the SQL MS Press books again right from the start, 431 then 443 and finally 444, I really want to cement some stuff in and then do the 444 exam at the end, thats the only exam I have left to go.

Regards,

D.

Luke C Right there with Babe Points: 790 More actions · Answer 5

Good Morning,

Duran if VMWare won't allow you to setup a cluster you can checkout Virtual Server 2005 (free). Below is a link on how to setup a cluster.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/virtualserver/deploy/cvs2005.mspx

Luke C
MCSE: Data Platform, MCP, MCTS, MCITP - Database Administrator & Database Developer

Andy sql SSCrazy Eights Points: 9496 More actions · Answer 6

Thanks Luke, very interesting white paper.

I am genuinely surprised that this works. All my previous encounters with Microsoft Cluster setup have been severely restricted by the requirements demanded by Microsoft, for example documented at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309395

I quote from the main setup and configuration guide for MSCS:

"Clustering hardware must be on the cluster service Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)"

and, even scarier:

"All hardware should be identical, slot for slot, card for card, BIOS, firmware revisions, and so on, for all nodes."

Strange that MSCS can work quite happily on a Virtual Machine though...??

Looking at the setup described in the white paper, there is no reason why that same setup couldn't be created using VMware. Might be worth a try.

Andy

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 7

VMs work great for studying, but I'd recommend and external USB drive to share the load with your built in drive.

The VMs are alike, so clustering works great.

Duran SSChampion Points: 13259 More actions · Answer 8

Hello,

Thanks for all your feedback, looks I'm on for a bit clustering. Thanks for the white paper, I'll give it a read. Funny you should mention the external USB drive, because I was thinking about that, now I'll just get one.

Thank you all for your advice, I'll report back and let you know how I get on as it may help others, will be a while though, I have a lot to do before I get there.

Kind Regards,

P.

Davuth Te SSC Veteran Points: 202 More actions · Answer 9

Hello, I just finished setting up a Win2K3 cluster running SQL2K5 on my laptop here at work. I referenced quite a few sources, but this one was particularly helpful: http://www.blkmtn.org/files/VMware%20clustering%201.0.pdf

These are the steps I took, in a nutshell:

1) Setup a domain controller (this virtual machine won't be part of the cluster, but rather provides a domain for the nodes)

2) Create 1st node, with 1 ethernet controller pointing to the DC's network, and 1 more ethernet controller with a different subnet for the cluster heartbeat

3) Add shared disks to Node1, and make sure the following settings exist in Node1's config file:

scsi1.present = "TRUE"

scsi1.virtualDev = "lsilogic"

scsi1.sharedbus = "virtual"

scsi1:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi1:0.mode = "independent-persistent"

scsi1:0.shared = "FALSE"

4) Create Node2, but instead of creating new shared disks, point to the ones previously created for Node1

5) Join both nodes to the domain, and use ClusterAdmin to create a new cluster

6) Ensure you create MSDTC on the cluster before installing SQL2K5 on the main node