Comments on: SQL P2V: What Really Killed the Dinosaurs http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/ SQL Server MCM and MVP, performance tuning, consulting, training, and community building. Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:18:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Brent Ozar http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-23191 Brent Ozar Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:35:31 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-23191 Perry - yes, you can check the best practices for your P2V software and that's usually mentioned. Perry – yes, you can check the best practices for your P2V software and that’s usually mentioned.

]]> By: Perry Whittle http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-23174 Perry Whittle Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:39:28 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-23174 Hi hot migrations are pretty cool but you should still really stop transactional services while the P2V operation is carried out. I always prefer a cold migration where possible and it will usually complete a lot quicker than a hot migration! Regards Perry Hi

hot migrations are pretty cool but you should still really stop transactional services while the P2V operation is carried out. I always prefer a cold migration where possible and it will usually complete a lot quicker than a hot migration!

Regards

Perry

]]> By: Brent Ozar http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-20925 Brent Ozar Mon, 17 May 2010 21:02:28 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-20925 James - check with your hardware vendor. For example, HP has a power sizing tool that will give you numbers based on the CPU and memory loads of the host: http://h20338.www2.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/cache/347628-0-0-0-121.html The numbers vary dramatically with your processor type, though, so any whitepaper would be obsolete by the time it got printed. Hope that helps! James – check with your hardware vendor. For example, HP has a power sizing tool that will give you numbers based on the CPU and memory loads of the host:

http://h20338.www2.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/cache/347628-0-0-0-121.html

The numbers vary dramatically with your processor type, though, so any whitepaper would be obsolete by the time it got printed. Hope that helps!

]]> By: James Annable http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-20924 James Annable Mon, 17 May 2010 21:00:22 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-20924 While the power savings from reducing hardware is much discussed, I'd like to see a white paper on the increased power and cooling required when you drive an existing server to its full potential from the industry standard level of utilization previously benchmarked, e.g. if the server with a power supply capable of 3 amps maximum previously was averaging 1.2 amps, what is the typical increase when a VM is added? While the power savings from reducing hardware is much discussed, I’d like to see a white paper on the increased power and cooling required when you drive an existing server to its full potential from the industry standard level of utilization previously benchmarked, e.g. if the server with a power supply capable of 3 amps maximum previously was averaging 1.2 amps, what is the typical increase when a VM is added?

]]> By: Hector Morey http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-19930 Hector Morey Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:21:12 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-19930 Thanks for your article/blog...about p2v. I was asked to assist a vender do a p2v and have to admit..it's the first time I came across this technology...though I have worked with VM servers in the past. It's pretty amazing technology, p2v, v2p and p2p. Wow..thngs you miss when you only start doing support! You explained all very clear. Thanks again! Thanks for your article/blog…about p2v. I was asked to assist a vender do a p2v and have to admit..it’s the first time I came across this technology…though I have worked with VM servers in the past. It’s pretty amazing technology, p2v, v2p and p2p. Wow..thngs you miss when you only start doing support! You explained all very clear.
Thanks again!

]]> By: Brent Ozar http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-17990 Brent Ozar Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:05:14 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-17990 Theresa - if your team hasn't used Platespin for this type of implementation before, I'd recommend testing it out on other (non-SQL) servers first. SQL Server does work pretty much the same as other servers, but you just want to be extremely careful. You also want to pay particular attention to the SAN HBA drivers and multipathing configurations. Are these 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems? If you're having memory problems and they're 32-bit, then rather than using Platespin, I'd recommend building new x64 servers and attaching the SAN drives to those instead. Hope that helps! Theresa – if your team hasn’t used Platespin for this type of implementation before, I’d recommend testing it out on other (non-SQL) servers first. SQL Server does work pretty much the same as other servers, but you just want to be extremely careful. You also want to pay particular attention to the SAN HBA drivers and multipathing configurations.

Are these 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems? If you’re having memory problems and they’re 32-bit, then rather than using Platespin, I’d recommend building new x64 servers and attaching the SAN drives to those instead. Hope that helps!

]]> By: Theresa http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-17985 Theresa Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:34:02 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-17985 Hi Brent, Thank-you for this article. We are migrating a number of V2V and P2V SQL servers to our datacentre and will keep this article close by. Unfortunately, the business was too nervous to virtualize our consolidated SQL 2005 production server so we are going to go ahead and migrate to new hardware. The plan is to platespin the OS drives and then reattach the SAN drive (where data files reside). We will stop the SQL services and set them to manual, platespin the OS drives to the new hardware, attach SAN storage then bring up SQL services. All drives including SAN will have the same labels and configuration. Please advise if this is approach is too simple and or if you can think of any issues we should be aware of. Of course a full backup will be taken as a safety net prior to the shutdown :) FYI - We've had problems with low memory in the past and are increasing from 8 to 32gb. AWE is enabled. Currently the memory is configured like this: MIN 128mb MAX 6144. At times SQL has consumed all available memory and still ran slow. Should we allocated 1 - 2 gb for the OS and the rest for SQL? Also how would you configure the 32gb on the new server if it is just a SQL server and nothing else? Thanks, T Hi Brent,
Thank-you for this article. We are migrating a number of V2V and P2V SQL servers to our datacentre and will keep this article close by. Unfortunately, the business was too nervous to virtualize our consolidated SQL 2005 production server so we are going to go ahead and migrate to new hardware. The plan is to platespin the OS drives and then reattach the SAN drive (where data files reside). We will stop the SQL services and set them to manual, platespin the OS drives to the new hardware, attach SAN storage then bring up SQL services. All drives including SAN will have the same labels and configuration. Please advise if this is approach is too simple and or if you can think of any issues we should be aware of. Of course a full backup will be taken as a safety net prior to the shutdown :)
FYI – We’ve had problems with low memory in the past and are increasing from 8 to 32gb. AWE is enabled. Currently the memory is configured like this: MIN 128mb MAX 6144. At times SQL has consumed all available memory and still ran slow. Should we allocated 1 – 2 gb for the OS and the rest for SQL? Also how would you configure the 32gb on the new server if it is just a SQL server and nothing else?

Thanks,
T

]]> By: Carl http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-5994 Carl Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:11:41 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-5994 Yes...P2V does work well as I have experienced it first hand by pulling several older physical DMZ web servers over to a virtualized VMWare environment while the other box is up and running. Very cool technology...and thanks for sharing Brent;) Your blog is very useful and I am glad I have stumbled across a great SQL Server resource for the future;) Yes…P2V does work well as I have experienced it first hand by pulling several older physical DMZ web servers over to a virtualized VMWare environment while the other box is up and running. Very cool technology…and thanks for sharing Brent;) Your blog is very useful and I am glad I have stumbled across a great SQL Server resource for the future;)

]]> By: Mike Hillwig http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-5625 Mike Hillwig Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:28:53 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-5625 I'm sitting here thinking of the servers I could virtualize and hardware we could recover by doing exactly this. Our case isn't dinosaurs as much as it is having too much hardware for the task at hand. We're using your Porche 911 when a Honda Civic would be perfectly adequate. I’m sitting here thinking of the servers I could virtualize and hardware we could recover by doing exactly this. Our case isn’t dinosaurs as much as it is having too much hardware for the task at hand. We’re using your Porche 911 when a Honda Civic would be perfectly adequate.

]]> By: BrentO http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/sql-p2v-what-really-killed-the-dinosaurs/#comment-5623 BrentO Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:07:06 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=1167#comment-5623 I've heard similar good vibes about Platespin for a couple of years from VMware gurus. The point about moving datacenters is really relevant - I love that way of lighting up a new datacenter. Odds are the old DC had slower machines anyway, and moving them to VMs will present performance improvements (as long as they're the right kinds of servers to virtualize.) I’ve heard similar good vibes about Platespin for a couple of years from VMware gurus.

The point about moving datacenters is really relevant – I love that way of lighting up a new datacenter. Odds are the old DC had slower machines anyway, and moving them to VMs will present performance improvements (as long as they’re the right kinds of servers to virtualize.)

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