Running a production SQL environment on a virtual server

  • Hi to everyone,

    In order to reduce costs, we are looking at setting up some virtual servers. As the concept if pretty clear to us, the technical side is still new to us, so I was looking to find out if any of you had some thoughts on what to look-out for when putting a production SQL Server out on this kind of set-up.

    Thanks

    Yvan

  • I've used virtual machines with SQL Server at my last 2 jobs and its worked fairly well. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that if they are going to make any changes to the virtual environment .. particularly disk space .. shut down your SQL Server while they do it.

    We increased disk space without shutting down SQL and completly corrupted our databases.

    The only other problem I've seen was a snapshot that got out of hand. It kept updating itself and using up more and more space. Even though we had told it it was a one time snapshot. We found out about it when it eventually used up a terabyte drive. Not entirly sure what caused it though because our server team handled it.

    Kenneth

    Kenneth FisherI was once offered a wizards hat but it got in the way of my dunce cap.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/[/url]For better answers on performance questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/[/url]Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLStudies.com[/url]

  • Y, I've run it a couple times too. Though I wouldn't use it for anything with really high transactions, it worked really well for our lesser sql boxes.

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  • Kenneth,

    Thanks for the info, we'll keep it in mind

    crever,

    Thanks

  • True. I've only ever used it on development and test boxes.

    It was very nice though when using for test boxes because you could put up a new test box in a matter of minutes. Or set up for a series of tests, do a snapshot, run the tests and then restore the snapshot for the next set of tests.

    Kenneth FisherI was once offered a wizards hat but it got in the way of my dunce cap.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/[/url]For better answers on performance questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/[/url]Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLStudies.com[/url]

  • when we bought VMWare a few years ago the sales guys specifically said don't run SQL or Exchange on it

    your best bet in reducing expenses is buying x64 hardware and scaling up

  • SQL Noob,

    We will double-check on that. We have contradicting information on this. I do not know our info is coming from the sales guy or a technical guy!:unsure:

    Which version are you running?

    Y

  • Well, that was a few yrs ago. MS if embracing virtual environments with SQL these days.

    Watch my free SQL Server Tutorials at:
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  • Actually I read an article that said that Microsoft will even provide support for using SQL with VMWare .. as long as the VMWare is their version of it :).

    Kenneth FisherI was once offered a wizards hat but it got in the way of my dunce cap.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/[/url]For better answers on performance questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/[/url]Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLStudies.com[/url]

  • If your experience with VMWare was a few years ago, things have changed pretty dramatically with the introduction of the hypervisor in the current versions of VMWare (MS will be releasing theirs shortly).

    Virtualization is suitable for production use as long as you've got all of your ducks in a row and understand the pro's/con's of the technology.

    Virtualization is really all about the underlying infrastructure, done right virtualization works well, done wrong/cheaply it usually fails miserably. Probably the most important thing I've seen is that virtualization tends to place a lot of demands on the underlying storage layer which many SAN's/NAS's & fabrics/networks just aren't ready for. Also be prepared to see your storage needs skyrocket, as noted it becomes pretty easy to "spin up" new instances for A, B, C, D... definitely something you need to plan for.

    Joe

  • I'll second what Joe says above. In the last few conference workshops I taught in November I was asked that question and did a poll of the attendees (1-200 in each case). The majority opinion was that in testing/dev its fine but in high-volume production you tend to hit IO throughput problems unless you're really careful and have serious IO subsystems.

    Paul Randal
    CEO, SQLskills.com: Check out SQLskills online training!
    Blog:www.SQLskills.com/blogs/paul Twitter: @PaulRandal
    SQL MVP, Microsoft RD, Contributing Editor of TechNet Magazine
    Author of DBCC CHECKDB/repair (and other Storage Engine) code of SQL Server 2005

  • We run Reporting Services on an x64 bit VMware. Seems to run OK doing batch scheduled reports.

    I don't know that I'd run our SSAS instance on one though. I'd be afraid that someone would snapshot average CPU usage and our cube wouldn't rebuild in a timely manner as they would short us on resources.

    Compare licensing to a x64 bit quad core machine when you're looking at cost. 🙂

    Greg E

  • Thanks guys for all the valuable comments.

    I am passing them along within our team. We will have some interesting discussions.

    Although we do not have a very intense IO environment, we will show caution.

    yvan:satisfied:

  • Aside from quickly setting up test environments, there really isn't a reason to setup virtual machine of any sort. SQL Server is already virtual and can run multiple instances. Adding the overhead of a VM environment only complicates the support of the SQL Server environment.

  • Keith,

    That's a very good point!

    Thanks

    Yvan

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