All databases are not created equal. Learn how to find greedy databases – ones that are using up more IO than others – and learn what options you have for reducing their loads.
Virtualization
Laptop Virtualization Best Practices – And a Contest!
Whether you’re using Windows or a Mac, if you’re thinking about using virtualization for the first time on your laptop to test out new operating systems like Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2, there’s a few things you should know. Get Another Hard Drive Drive Bay Laptop drives aren’t quick to begin with, and running…
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SQL Server 2008 R2: Think Virtualization
How are my servers doing? How are my databases doing? If my boss came in and asked which servers needed more horsepower or which ones could be consolidated together, how would I come up with an answer? I’ve always found it funny that DBAs and sysadmins don’t have good answers to these questions. We roll…
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PASS Virtualization Virtual Chapter
The Professional Association for SQL Server has a few Virtual Chapters. Formerly known as Special Interest Groups (SIGs), these are groups where people with similar interests can get together and talk shop. It’s like that Furry group you belong to, only different. Or maybe not so different. I’m starting up a Virtualization Virtual Chapter: a…
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Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Virtualize SQL Server
I’ve blogged about why you should virtualize SQL Server, but it’s not all unicorns and rainbows. Today we’re going to talk about some of the pitfalls and problems. When Virtualization Goes Right It’s Tougher to Get More Storage Throughput Servers connect to Storage Area Networks (SANs) with Host Bus Adapters (HBAs). They’re like fancypants network…
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Why Would You Virtualize SQL Server?
I talked about why sysadmins want to virtualize servers, and today it’s time to talk about why you as a DBA or developer might want to virtualize some of your SQL Servers. Virtualization Means Cheap High Availability Yo momma was an early adopter. That’s right – you’re adopted. In a perfect world, every SQL Server…
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Why Your Sysadmin Wants To Virtualize Your Servers
DBAs and developers: right now, your Windows admin is talking to management about all the time, money and hardware he can save by virtualizing servers. He might not start with SQL Servers first, because frankly, he’s scared of database administrators. DBAs only have one answer: “No.” Your sysadmin knows how you roll. Thing is, though,…
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Partition alignment in virtual machines
Partition alignment is a setup trick for disk-intensive apps like Exchange and SQL Server that can have a 30% or more performance impact on your server. The setup information is in my SQL Server Setup Checklist, and Jimmy May has more details on the mechanics of partition alignment. If you run SQL Server in VMware,…
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SQL P2V: What Really Killed the Dinosaurs
Say we have a physical database server sitting over there in the rack. For the sake of discussion, let’s pretend it’s a slightly older model, a HP DL380 G2 with a couple of P3 CPUs, 4gb of ram, and six local 36gb drives. The storage is broken up into a mirrored pair of drives for…
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SQL Server support on virtual servers
The Microsoft knowledge base article on SQL Server virtualization support just got an update. Here’s the interesting part: “Versions of SQL Server after SQL Server 2005 will incorporate full support for running on a supported guest operating system that is installed on a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtual machine.” That means SQL Server 2008 will…
Read MoreWindows 2008 with Hyper-V on a Dell Latitude D830
My new work laptop for Quest is a Dell Latitude D830 running Windows XP. I gave XP another shot, and after a day I’d switched back to my Macbook Pro. I needed to use some of the XP-only apps, so I virtualized the XP image, and set about turning the Dell into my mobile datacenter.…
Read MoreUgly month of outages
The past month has been a real challenge, filled with 70-80 hour weeks and clawing back from one disaster after another. In late June, IBM recommended that we upgrade the firmware on our DS4800 SAN controllers to fix some problems. We obliged, and two days later, our Exchange cluster rebooted without warning. We’d been having…
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