SQL server and load balancing

  • Hi,

    My admin want a load balancing on a sql server in load balancing.

    I read ms documentaion and "cluster cannot be in load balancing.you need an other software"

    Wht is your opinion ? Do you know thoses softs ?

  • As far as I know there is nothing that will truly "load-balance" a SQL Server installation. You can have an Active / Active cluster solution where you split the heavily hit databases across the two servers to allow the hardware to last longer but, that could be, at best, described as a manual load balance solution.

    Brian Knight has some great introduction to SQL Server clustering documentation on this sight and it would be worthwhile to read that and discuss the options with your admin.

    As for third party clustering tools, they all run pretty well but then again, so does MS and it doesn't cost....

    Hope this helps.

    David

    David

    @SQLTentmaker

    “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot

  • David is right, there isn't a real "Load balancing" solution. The best you could do, and I've done it, is to setup a second server with "read only" data and then point some people to one server and some to another. I supposed a load balancer with sticky connections could do this for you, but I haven't tested that part.

    We used replication to keep the 2nd server in synch with the primary.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

    The Best of SQL Server Central.com 2002 - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/bestof/

    http://www.dkranch.net

  • Thank you for your answers.

    It should be hard to maintain two servers with a real time replication. isn't it ?

    I think that we will choose a SQL cluster.

  • >It should be hard to maintain two servers >with a real time replication. isn't it ?

    Probably not, but it doubles risk on downtime

  • The load balancing in SQL Server is through partitioned views. MS uses them extensively for all their TPC benchmarks. However, this requires lot of application & DB redesign and not all applications are suitable for this model. How ever I would like to know if any one is really using this in production..

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