Just a reminder – I’m doing a webcast this morning with Kevin Kline and Ron Talmage on SQL Server consolidation & virtualization. If you’re thinking about your first consolidation project, or if you’re worried about virtual database servers, come check it out.
Want to watch a free 5-minute video about the basics of Microsoft SQL Server consolidation? No? Maybe you just want to see me talking with my hands while wearing a guayabera. (If you get the chance to grab one of the Quest guayaberas, grab one. They’re choice.) Either way, Christian Hasker, the Director of Product Marketing for Quest Software, interviewed me about SQL consolidation.
We talked about some of the things I covered in my article for the free SQL Consolidation Guide we’re distributing at TechEd. If you’re even thinking about doing any SQL Server consolidation, go register for that guide – it’s got some great articles. I definitely learned from some of the other authors in the guide, and these are all tips that you don’t want to learn the hard way – after your consolidation project goes haywire.
One of the things I love about working at Quest is that they’re genuinely interested in giving back to the community, and this consolidation guide is a great example of that. Pick it up, read through it, and you’ll absorb a lot of information that is useful whether you use Quest software products or not. At Quest, so much of what we do centers around making you (the DBA) look good. Like the old Paul Mitchell ad says, if you don’t look good, we don’t look good. If you’re using the native tools, cool, we can pass on knowledge that will help, because we have to work closely with the native stuff in our discovery process to see what we can do better.
Capacity Manager, one of the products mentioned in the consolidation guide, is a tool I’ll be blogging about over the coming weeks. I promise you won’t see any marketing info here, but I want to show some of the features and capabilities because they’re things I would have really appreciated as a DBA, things that would have made my job easier.
I gave one of my former managers a quick tour of Capacity Manager’s new version 2.5, and his first reaction was, “Wow, I wish we would have known about this a year ago! We gotta have this.”
If you want to learn about CM on your own, you can go hit the Capacity Manager pages, or stick around and I’ll post some short video walkthroughs soon showing the features DBAs will really appreciate. No spam, I promise.
When you’re building a consolidation plan, stop to think about when each database will be migrated to a newer version of SQL Server.
With SQL Server 2008 coming fast, some content owners will want to move their databases to 2008 as soon as it comes out in order to take advantage of things like the resource governor. But if you’ve consolidated multiple database servers onto one, and just one of those databases can’t be moved to 2008, then everybody has to wait!
This is especially important when dealing with third party solutions, applications written by other companies who may not have an aggressive development policy on supporting new versions of Microsoft SQL Server. Even now, in calendar year 2008, I deal with apps that still don’t support SQL Server 2005.
In any consolidation plan, try to include a “Next Step” section that addresses how quickly (or slowly) the newly consolidated databases will be moved to the next version of SQL Server.
Taken in the opposite direction, this can even be a selling point for SQL Server 2000 consolidation projects. Imagine this conversation with an application owner:
The DBA: “Bob, I’m going to consolidate your databases next month.”
Bob the Lazy Application Owner: “No.”
The DBA: “Actually, yes, I am. We’re taking all of the apps that still aren’t certified for SQL 2005, and we’re moving them to a single server. Your server’s an ancient single-core box that gives me nothing but heartache, and I’m tired of managing several of these boat anchors. I’m going to consolidate them all onto a new multi-core server that can handle all of our SQL 2000 instances, and I’ll have less management to do.”
Bob: “Will it save me time?”
The DBA: “It won’t let you play more golf during business hours, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Bob: “Then we’re not doing it.”
The DBA: “That’s a shame, seeing as your manager already signed the consolidation project charter.”
Bob: “What?!?”
The DBA: “Yep. I showed her that the total hardware maintenance on these five old 2000 servers is over $20,000 per year, especially now that they’re long discontinued. Plus this will free up four sets of SQL Server Licensing, so the consolidation project will actually pay for itself on day one.”
Bob: “Why wasn’t I told about this?”
The DBA: “Because you didn’t attend the meeting. I sent you an invite, but your secretary called me the day of the meeting and said you had an offsite meeting. I think it was the week of the PGA Tour event here in town, come to think of it.”
Bob: “Oh. Consolidation it is, then.”
