How to Determine New SQL Box Specs for Migration from 2005 to 2008

  • So I've been researching this, but can't get a clear how to on this. I just joined a new job and one of my first projects is to migrate a 2005 sql server to 2008. I need to give specs to my infrastructure guy for new environment.

    We have an application running on Windows 2003 Box (4 processors, 4GB of ram) with SQL 2005 SP4. We are running on VM Ware with Net App. We need to get to Windows 2008 with SQL Server 2008 R2.

    How do I determine Specs for the New Box. For example, how many CPU (and their speed), how much RAM, etc.

    Is there a tutorial you guys can point me to?

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  • If you are just doing a lift and shift, then the starting point for the new box is to make it the same capability as the old box.

    CPU chips have improved drastically over the past few years, so work out the total GHz of your CPU power ~ (speed * number of cores) / max CPU busy % ~ and use this GHz value for the new box. Decide on the max CPU busy you want to see and adjust your base GHZ value accordingly.

    Are you having any performance issues on the old box? If so, have you investigated to see if they are CPU, memory or IO related? If you have any of these issues, increase the spec of the new box accordingly.

    Are you having any disk space issues on the old box? If so, get more disk space on the new box.

    If you want to consolidate this workload along with other workloads on to a new box, then the process is similar. Work out the total GHz requirement, memory requirement, and IO rate.

    For memory, add the memory used by SQL for all the old boxes. Subtract 500MB for each instance being consolidated, then add 500MB for the new instance. This is the SQL memory you are likely to need for the new box. Add 20% to this to allow for Windows. Add extra if you are also going to run SSAS or SSRS on the same box.

    For IO, look at the Windows counters for Physical Disk: Disk queue length, Disks reads / sec, Disk writes per sec. The Q length will show you how well/badly your current disks are coping with the workload, and your target is that it should be no worse on the new box. Add together the reads/sec and writes/sec for all boxes. This becomes the load that your SAN or local storage needs to handle.

    This gives a simplified way to work out the size needed for your new box, butyou should consider fine-tuning all the items depending on the actual workload you are moving.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

    When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara

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