May 16, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Let me start off by saying that I am not a DBA, and call myself a noob when it comes to SQL. I've only been working with cluster technology for 4 months (but am a very fast learner)
Background:
Existing SQL 2005 Ent Ed 32bit Cluster w/ SP1
Both nodes are running Win 2k3 Ent Ed SP1 - 32bit
This cluster runs one database (approximately 20 GB in size) for a home grown app.
I need to bring up a new application that will be using approximately 100 db's. The sizes of these individual dbs will be anywhere from 1 GB to 10 GB in size. The application manufacturer is specifying a SQL 2005 cluster on 64bit with a single instance name & the db's under that instance name.
My DBA is telling me that the existing single database (home grown) in the cluster would get some performance benefits by moving it to 64bit SQL... for reasons that are too long to go into here... and he says we should put the new application in the same cluster.
What I'm trying to avoid:
Buying two more servers, a new SAN disk tray, and having another 2-node cluster dedicated to a single application.
What I want to do:
Buy one more server
Move my existing cluster to 64bit OS & 64bit SQL.
Create a 3 node cluster (2x Active, 1x Passive)
My Plan of action:
Build a new node (node3) that is running 64bit OS & 64bit SQL 2005 and join it to the existing cluster.... ie: node1 & node2 are 32bit, node3 would be 64bit
Then once I get the new application up and running on node 3 and everything stabilized, my plan is this:
What I want to know:
Can a SQL cluster support 32bit & 64bit nodes simultaneously? (My preliminary research says maybe yes for windows, don't know about SQL).
My DBA is telling me there is no difference in the database/log files between 32bit SQL and 64 SQL, so failing over during the short downtime of removing a node for rebuild would not be an issue .... is that an accurate statement?
Can a 32bit SQL node co-exist with a 64bit SQL node in the same cluster?
Am I just going to have build a new 64bit cluster to achieve what I want to do?
If anyone makes it this far, Thank You for taking the time to read my post.
If anyone replies, a Tremendous Thank You!
Sincerely
Scott K
June 4, 2007 at 10:07 am
no can do
if you want 64 bit you need 64 bit hardware, OS and SQL. supposedly you can move db's between 32 and 64 bit SQL. but there is no way you can mix and match in the cluster. reason is the SQL files are stored on shared storage so that in case of a failover the other node reads from there. no way a 32 bit node will run the 64 bit files.
reason for 64 bit is no matter how much RAM you have on a 32 bit OS the limit is still 4GB except for the buffer cache. with 64 bit it's some obscene amount of memory.
need for 64 bit is not determined by the size of the db, but the number of connections and the types of queries run. a lot of order by queries will push the RAM to it's limits.
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