virtualization

  • Hi,

    I need to choose a tool for virtualization.

    What are you using? SQL Server 2008 hyper-v or VMware?

    thank you,

    Pedro

  • We have used VMWare in a couple of UAT implementations...

  • what are UAT implementations?

  • Sorry- User Acceptance Testing or Development environments, rather than Production.

  • ok, thank you for the reply.

    I would like to know in production, what dbas are using?

    thank you,

    Pedro

  • Don't think that virtualization is recommended for Prod.

    We use VMware for Dev & Staging.

  • We use VMWare for Production, Dev and QA.

  • Agree with SQLRocker. Performance can fluctuate significantly from my experience due to shared disk and server resources.

    HP's PolyServe looks like an interesting option for virtualization...

  • Sorry- I meant Lee...bed time:blush:

  • hyper-v with sql server 2005 on a windows 2008.its now supported by Microsoft

  • We use VMware ESX 3.5 for Development, QA, Staging and Production.

  • what are the advantages over hyper-v?

  • We use Virtual Box from SUN

    http://www.virtualbox.org/"> http://www.virtualbox.org/

    I perfer it to VMware, as it is free and can run on a lot of different operating systems, this suits us as we have a mix of Microsoft and Linux here

  • Well it depends on your business, if you're a Microsoft house I would recommend hyper-v if you have a mixed environment I would take a closer look at vmware or xenserver. We are mostly a business using Microsoft, but we choose vmware because it was the only choice in 2003. When hyper-v r2 is released later this year it a serious contender, also take a look at xenserver.

    Virtualizing SQL is quite doable, just let common sense and business needs guide your way. Think about the agility that vmotion and storage motion gives you and your business.

    Anders

  • I'll try to help for those looking at Polyserve. It can be effective for stacking light to moderately loaded production instances. I would be wary of letting Developers use it though - because it's difficult to diagnose/rebuild after a developer wipes something out. It doesn't save as much $$$ as they say - now that 64-bit has lifted the memory ceiling. Our four clusters cost ~ 550k when done (12 servers).

    It's a pure database/High Availability solution. You really need to avoid any apps. that require additional components on the DB server (called a node in clustering) though, because only one node at a time has that apps. active database, so the apps. components on the inactive nodes can loose their cookies and confuse your application server and/or cause compatibility problems. Patching can be a challenge, because it must be scripted. You MUST keep a Polyserve DEV environment to test patches/Service Packs with - or you will live to regret it. Hope that helps.

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