Virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server
VMware provides an excellent production-ready virtualization platform for customers looking to deploy Microsoft SQL Server in a virtual infrastructure. Read below to discover some of the advantages of virtualizing Microsoft SQL with VMware technology.
Maintain Availability without Duplicate Hardware
VMware technology makes it possible to ensure high levels of availability for SQL Server without the cost of identical servers, the complexity of rebuilding clusters when hardware is upgraded, or the difficulties of testing clustered physical systems. This approach gives you a viable alternative to expensive 3rd-party failover and clustering solutions that provides the following benefits:
- Automated failover protection – If the underlying hardware fails, automated failover mechanisms will restart SQL Server on another VMware-enabled server within minutes.
- Rapid disaster recovery – Many customers rely on VMware for disaster recovery, and we will soon release tools that manage and automate recovery from site-wide outages.
- Zero-downtime maintenance – Use VMware technology to migrate live, running instances of SQL Server from one physical host to another with no interruption in service.
- LAN-free backup – VMware technology enables LAN-free backup of SQL Server from a centralized proxy server, eliminating backup traffic from the network.
Streamline IT Management Tasks
VMware provides a robust set of management and automation technologies that can help you simplify management & provisioning of SQL Server environments through:
- Simplified testing and troubleshooting – Re-create your production environment instantly and use advanced snapshot capabilities to roll back to a prior safe state.
- Rapid provisioning – Use virtual machine templates and wizard-based provisioning to quickly deploy fully configured virtual machines that are ready to run in minutes.
- Automated load balancing – Monitor utilization and automate the allocation of resources based on policies that reflect business needs and changing priorities.
Rely on a Production-proven Platform
VMware offers a mature, customer-proven virtualization platform on which to base your Microsoft Exchange environment. More than 85% of VMware customers deploy VMware in production IT environments, and 54% of customers use VMware as their standard platform for delivering enterprise applications.
Read the Customer Results Survey
Customer Success Stories
McHenry Savings Bank
McHenry Savings Bank is a full-service financial institution northwest of Chicago, Illinois that implemented VMware Infrastructure 3 to virtualize its servers, improving manageability and utilization while reducing costs and minimizing new hardware purchases for its growing Microsoft SQL environment.
Read the McHenry Savings Bank Success Story
Subaru
In its 620-acre facility in Lafayette, Indiana, Subaru of Indiana produces cars and SUVs for its parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, and Camry vehicles for Toyota. Subaru implemented VMware Infrastructure 3 to increase flexibility and system reliability for SQL Server while eliminating approximately two-thirds of their physical servers.
United States Department of Energy
The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site industrial complex wanted to deploy new servers to improve performance and efficiency while reducing administrative burdens and procedural paperwork. The site has implemented VMware Infrastructure 3 to virtualize their Microsoft SQL 2006 environment along with several other enterprise applications.
Read the Department of Energy Success Story
Additional Resources
Solution Brief: Microsoft SQL Server, VMware Virtual Infrastructure, and EMC Celerra NS Storage Server
This document describes a virtualization solution for SQL Server using VMware Infrastructure 3 software and EMC® Celerra® NS Series/Integrated IP Storage servers, and how the benefits of both are applied to the deployment of SQL Server, making virtualization an attractive choice for the database environment.
Reference Architecture Guide: Microsoft SQL Server, VMware Virtual Infrastructure, and EMC Celerra NS Storage Server
This document outlines a virtualization architecture for SQL Server using VMware Infrastructure 3 software and EMC® Celerra® NS Series/Integrated IP Storage Servers.
White Paper: SQL Server Performance in VMware Infrastructure
This paper describes transaction processing workload performance in virtual machines using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and VMware Infrastructure 3.
White Paper: Benchmarking Microsoft SQL Server Using VMware ESX Server 3.5
This paper describes the results of a benchmarking study performed in Brocade test labs which demonstrates that SQL Server can be deployed on VMware ESX Server 3.5 for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) applications in very favorable server consolidation ratios to meet corporate IT business requirements.
