create supported sql server 2008 virtual...

Create Supported SQL Server 2008Virtual MachinesRely on Server Virtualization to run SQL Server 2008

SPONSORED BYBy Nelson Ruest & Danielle Ruest A Report by Resolutions Enterprises Ltd.

www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/default.aspx

http://www.Reso-Net.com

http://www.dell.com/sql

SQLServer2008 WhitePaper Pageii

Abstract

Virtualizationistakingthemarketbystormeveninthesetougheconomictimes.Itmakessense—virtualizeanapplicationanditautomaticallybecomesliberatedfromaparticularphysicalmachine.But,inordertoproperlyvirtualizetechnologies,youmustbeawareofthesupportpolicyfromtheproductvendor.InthecaseofMicrosoftSQLServer,thesupportteamhaspublishedguidelinesforvirtualizingthisdatabaseengine.ReadthispapertolearnhowtomoveforwardwiththeprocessandcreatesupportedSQLServervirtualmachines(VMs)thatcanbehostedonDellPowerEdgeservers.

About the Authors

NelsonRuestandDanielleRuestaretechnologyfuturistsfocusedondatacenteroptimizationandcontinuousserviceavailability.Theyareauthorsofmultiplebooks,notablytwobookspublishedbyMcGraw‐HillOsborne:“WindowsServer2008:TheCompleteReference”(2008)and“Virtualization,ABeginner’sGuide”(2009).Theyarecurrentlyworkingon“TrainingKit70‐652:ConfiguringWindowsServerVirtualizationwithHyper‐V,”publishedbyMicrosoftPress.In2007and2008,theyvisitedthousandsofITprofessionalsinmultiplecitiesacrosstheUnitedStatestodiscussthebenefitsofservervirtualization.

www.Reso‐Net.com

SQLServer2008 WhitePaper Pageiii

Table of Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................................1

ServerVirtualizationBasics ...........................................................................................2

DatabaseVirtualizationBasics.......................................................................................3

CreateSupportedSQLServerInstallations...................................................................4

AdditionalInformation ..................................................................................................5

SQLServer2008 WhitePaper Page1

Introduction

Servervirtualizationistakingthemarketbystormeveninthesetougheconomictimes.Itmakessense—virtualizeanapplicationanditautomaticallybecomesliberatedfromaparticularphysicalmachine,lettingyourunitonanyhost—internalorexternal.Thefactthattheapplicationresidesinsideavirtualmachine(VM),andthatthisVMcanrunprettywellanywhere,bringsawholenewdefinitiontothewords“applicationavailability.”

Inthepast,organizationshavetriedtoensurethattheircriticalapplications—applicationssuchasdatabaseserversore‐mailservers—arealwayson.High‐availabilityinfrastructures,continuousdatareplication,disasterrecoverystrategiesandmulti‐sitedata‐distributiontacticsareonlyafewexamplesofthemethodsorganizationsputinplacetoprotecttheirmostprecioussystems.Butallofthesemethodsarecomplextoimplementanddifficulttorun.Someevenrequirecustomhardwareorspecialsoftwareproducts,addingtotheburdenorganizationsalreadyfacetoruntheirinfrastructures.

Virtualizationtransformsthetraditionaloperationalparadigmsand,becauseofthis,introducesnewwaystoprotectyourorganization’smostvaluableassets.But,inordertoproperlyvirtualizetechnologies,youmustbeawareofthesupportpolicyfromtheproductvendor.Forexample,inthecaseofMicrosoftSQLServer,theMicrosoftCustomerSupportTeamhaspublishedguidelinesforvirtualizingthisdatabaseengine.TheseguidelinesarepublishedinMicrosoftKnowledgeBasearticle956893.

YoushouldtaketheseguidelinesintoconsiderationbeforeyouvirtualizeinordertoliberateyourSQLserversfromtheirphysicalconstraints.




Server Virtualization Basics

Whenorganizationsvirtualizetheirapplications,databasestendtobesavedforlast.Organizationsdothiswithreason:databasesusuallyrequirehighlevelsofInput/OutputOperationsPerSecond.Whenorganizationsareunfamiliarwithservervirtualizationtechnologies,theyfeeltheymustgainacertainlevelofconfidenceinthetechnologybeforemovingtheirmostpreciousapplicationsontothevirtualinfrastructure.Therefore,theyrightlybeginwithnon‐criticalapplicationssuchasfileservers,Webservers,printserversandthelike.Oncethey’vegainedconfidenceinthenewoperationalmodelvirtualizationbrings,theymovetheirmostpreciousanddemandingsystemsontothenewinfrastructure.

However,whenyoumovetoavirtualinfrastructure,youshouldalwaysdosowithapplicationsupportinmind.Whilemanyvendorshavebeenslowtoadapttheirapplicationsupportpoliciestovirtualization,thisisnotthecasewithMicrosoft.Infact,Microsofthasupdatedmostofitsapplicationsupportpolicies.AsummaryofthevariousapplicationsMicrosoftsupportsinvirtualenvironmentscanbefoundinKBarticle957006.

Microsoftsupportsvirtualizationofitsapplicationsontwotypesofvirtualinfrastructures.First,itsupportsservervirtualization—thepartitioningofthephysicalhardwareintomultiplecontainerscalledvirtualmachines(VMs)—onitsownhypervisor,Hyper‐V.Hyper‐Voffershardware‐assistedvirtualization.Microsoftalsosupportsservervirtualizationonvalidated,third‐partyhypervisorsrunninginspecificconfigurations.Theseconfigurations,andthesupportedthird‐partyhypervisors,aredocumentedundertheMicrosoftServerVirtualizationValidationProgram.

Becausehypervisorsrelyonhardware‐assistedvirtualizationbuiltintoprocessors,youmustbecarefulwhenselectingthehardwareusedtosupportservervirtualization.Hardware‐assistedvirtualizationisavailableinbothIntelandAMDprocessors.DelloffersaselectionofPowerEdgeServersrunningeitherprocessortypeincertifiedconfigurationsfortheimplementationofservervirtualizationplatforms.




Database Virtualization Basics

BecauseMicrosoftnowsupportsservervirtualizationforitsmostpowerfulapplications,ithasbegunbuildingvirtualization‐enabledintegrationcomponentsintobothitsserveroperatingsystemsanditsserverapplications.ThisisthecaseforbothWindowsServer2008andSQLServer2008.RunningthetwotogetherinaVMletsyoutakefulladvantageofthevirtualizationmodelwithoutlossofperformance,becauseboththeOSandtheapplicationareawareofthefactthatthey’rerunninginaVM.

OneofthemajoradvantagesyougainbyvirtualizingyourSQLServerinstallationsisphysicalserverconsolidation.Infact,youcanusetwodifferentconsolidationmodelswhenyoutransformphysicalSQLServerinstallationsintoVMs.

VirtualizationConsolidationThisconsolidationmodelreliesonservervirtualizationtoruneachSQLServerinstallationinsidesegregatedguestOSes.EachguestOSiscompletelyisolatedfromtheothers.HardwareisvirtualizedandpresentedtoguestOSesthroughsyntheticdevices.DevicedriversarestreamlinedbecauseeachguestOSaddressesthesamesyntheticdevices.

OncetheguestOSisinstalled,youcaninstallSQLServer2008intotheVManduseittoconsolidateyourdatabases.EachVMcanrunanynumberofdatabases.Theadvantagesofvirtualizationareundeniable.EachharddiskdrivefortheVMsiscontainedwithinvirtualharddrives—drivesthatarecontainedinfilesonthephysicaldisk—whichmakesthemveryeasytobackup,duplicateorreplicateinordertoprotectthem.Inaddition,virtualizationconsolidationwillprovideabsoluteisolation,whichisrequiredbetweenallSQLServerinstancesbecauseeachVMisamachineinitsownright.

HybridConsolidationTheHybridconsolidationmodelmixesconsolidationmodelsbasedonthefeaturesofSQLServer2008,suchasdatabaseandinstanceconsolidationwithvirtualizationconsolidation.BecauseeachguestOShasthesamecapabilitiesasaphysicallyinstalledOS,youcanrelyonSQLServerfeaturestoeitherrunmultipledatabasesinasingleSQLinstanceorrunmultipleSQLinstances,eachwithitsownpolicies,backupschedulesandconfigurationsettings.

Ifyou’reusingmultipleinstancesandyourVMneedsmoreresourcestorunthem,simplyshutitdown,addmorevirtualresourcesandpoweritbackup.Or,ifyou’reusingthelatesthypervisortechnologies,youcansimplyhot‐addtheresourceswhiletheVMisrunning.EachVMcanrunupto16instancesifyou’reusingtheStandardEditionofSQLServer.Youcanrunupto50instancesinaVMifyou’reusingtheEnterpriseorDeveloperEdition.

Byrelyingontheseconsolidationmodels,youcangreatlyreducethephysicalfootprintofyourSQLServerinstallations.ITprofessionalsindatacenterseverywherearequicklydiscoveringthatthe“oneOS,onephysicalserver”modeldeliversverypoorutilizationratios.Witha“multipleOS,onephysicalserver”model,youcanincreasehardware‐utilizationratiosandtransformthemfrom10percentor15percentutilizationtomorethan70percentutilization.Whenyouconsiderthateachphysicalserverrequiresspace,powerandcooling,youcanquicklyseetheallureofphysicalserverconsolidationthroughvirtualization.




Create Supported SQL Server Installations

KBarticle956893outlinesseveralkeyfactorsforthecreationofsupportedvirtualinstallationsofSQLServer2008.WhileMicrosoftwillsupportrunningolderversionsofSQLServerandtheWindowsServerOSinVMs,youshouldreallyendeavortoupgradeandconvertallofyourSQLinstancestoSQLServer2008andrunitonWindowsServer2008toobtainoptimumperformancelevelsinVMs.

Article956893alsooutlinesseveralothercaveats:

1. AllphysicalhardwaremustbecertifiedforWindowsServer2008whetheryourunWindowsServer2008withHyper‐Voranothersupportedhypervisor.DelloffersseveralPowerEdgeconfigurationsthatincludethiscertification.Table1outlinesthebestPowerEdgeconfigurationsthatsupportSQLServervirtualization.

2. Youcan’tcreateaGuestFailoverCluster.AGuestFailoverClusterisaclusterthat’screatedattheVMlayerbetweenVMs.GuestclustersareoftencreatedtoprovidehighavailabilityfortheapplicationcontainedwithintheVMs.Youcan,however,createaHostFailoverClusterandrunindividualSQLServerVMsontopofthehostcluster.ThisautomaticallyprovideshighavailabilityfortheVM.Note:WhenaVMismadehighlyavailablethroughhostserverclustering,theapplicationwithintheVMwillnotbeawareofthehigh‐availabilityfeature.

3. YoumustpairtheappropriateWindowsServerOSwiththeversionofSQLServeryouintendtovirtualize.Asmentionedearlier,youshouldendeavortorunSQLServer2008onWindowsServer2008.

4. YoumustrunaversionofSQLServerthat’ssupportedunderacurrentMicrosoftSupportLifecyclepolicy.IfyourunSQLServer2008,you’llfallunderthecurrentsupportlifecyclepolicyforthisproduct.

5. YoucanalsorelyonSQLServerfeatures,suchasdatabasemirroring,toprovideprotectionforcriticaldatabasesrunninginVMs.DatabasemirroringautomaticallyduplicatesallofthecontentsofadatabaseintoanotherSQLServerinstallation.Itwillalsoautomaticallyfailovertothesecondarydatabaseshouldtheprimarydatabasenolongerbeavailable.Anadditionaladvantageofthemirroreddatabaseisthatitcanbeusedtoprovideadditionalfunctionalitysuchasreportingservices.Youcanalsoperformbackupsfromthemirroredcopyavoidinganyperformanceimpactsontheproductiondatabase.Note:IfyouchoosetorundatabasemirroringinyourVMs,youshouldnotmaketheVMshighlyavailablethroughhostserverclustering.

UsingDellPowerEdgeServerstorunSQLServerVMscanbedoneoneitherMicrosoftHyper‐VoronServerVirtualizationValidationProgram(SVVP)hypervisorssuchasVMware’sESXServer.Intheseeconomictimes,everyonewantstoreducecostsandincreaseserver‐utilizationratios.CombiningthepowerofDellPowerEdgeServerswithvirtualizationthroughahypervisorwillsignificantlyreducethecostperinstanceforyourSQLServerinstallations,andallowyoutoachievetop‐levelperformancewhilereducingcosts.

ServerModel CPU/Cores

FormFactor

PowerEdgeR710 2x4‐core

2U

PowerEdge2970 2x4‐core

2U

PowerEdgeR905 4x4‐core

4U

PowerEdge900 4x4‐core

4U

Table1.DellPowerEdgeServermodelssupportingSQLServervirtualization.

Host Failover Clustering supports the creation of highly available virtual

machines.

Database Mirroring within virtual machines is fully supported.




Additional Information

SQLServer2008HomePagewww.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/default.aspx

SQLServeronDellPowerEdgeServerswww.dell.com/sql

DellPowerEdgeR900Serverwww.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/server‐poweredge‐r900?c=us&l=en&s=biz&cs=555

DellPowerEdgeR905Serverwww.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_r905?c=us&l=en&s=biz&cs=555

DellPowerEdgeR710Serverhttp://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/server‐poweredge‐r710?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

DellPowerEdge2970Serverwww.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_2970_rack?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

RunSQLServer2008inVMsonHyper‐VwithDellServerswww.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/public/white_papers/Virtualization_Guide_for_SQL_Server_2008.pdf

VirtualizingSQLServeronDellPowerEdgeServershttp://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/business~solutions~power~en/Documents~ps4q08‐20080334‐muirhead.pdf.aspx

