If you have other services, files in the filesystem, other resources outside of sql that have to be present after a failover, then consider clustering. I have two directions at my disposal either install a new windows and sql cluster then migrate all of the databases and update all of our applications to point at the new server or to turn on ha for the existing server and just let esx do the clustering at the vmware level. Ms sql 2005 enterprise edition gives you unlimited sql 2005 vms per virtual host, but at a premium price of course. Vmware vsphere supports windows server failover cluster wsfc with. Choosing sql clustering or vmware ha what is right. I got to the conclusion that both significantly add to the complexity of the environment. If you are running vmware in an ha clustered environment, then there is no need to leverage the sql clustering and sync features. Sql server 2016 and 2017 failover cluster instances fci were. Clustering is also simpler, can use disparate physical hardware. The microsoft sql server high availability features have also been. As the dba my inclination is to go down the sql server clustering route. Vmware ha is not database server high availability brent.
The biggest thing that ive heard from friends with larger vms for sql server is that you need dedicated io paths, preferably to a san, for the sql server vm. Vmware and hyperv are managed by vmware vcenter and microsoft system centre virtual machine manager scvmm, respectively. Vmware ha will not detect application or os level failures excepting vm heartbeat, etc. Ive blogged about why your sql server cluster shouldnt be. Best practices for virtualizing and managing sql server.
Mar 14, 2014 sql server failover cluster configurations. On top of these reasons, configuration of the vm guests for mscs is not a trivial process as shown by the 36 page whitepaper setup for failover clustering and microsoft cluster service. Even more, sql server is actually officially supported on hyperv. For information about running sql server on wsfc nodes and about wsfc quorum, see windows server failover clustering wsfc with sql server. Sql server cluster on vmware muthukumark nov 20, 2011 8. The remainder of the paper is focused on experiments conducted at the vmware performance engineering lab. A failover cluster basically gives you the ability to have all the data for a sql server instance installed in something like a share that can be accessed from different servers. Applicationlevel clustering has been the prevalent solution chosen for most sql server implementations. I am currently running sql server 2012 std wbi on a server 2012 guest in an ha esx 5 environment. Sep 27, 2012 sql server clustering on physical servers. Microsoft sql server on vmware vsphere availability and. The sql server installation process detects when an installation is being attempted on a clustered node and will prompt you as to whether you wish to configure the sql instance as clustered or not. For the sake of this discussion, were building two vms for use in a two node failover mscs cluster for sql 2012.
If you use inguest iscsi for mscs shared disk access then you wont have any issues with vmotion, and it is fully supported by vmware and microsoft. Sometimes it is cheaper to have the 2 way physical sql cluster, using 1 quad core cpu per cluster node and memory of course which still give you the availability, reduces hardware costssoftware costs and gives you the. Features of the vsphere platform can enhance the overall availability of sql server by providing options. Sql server alternative is high availability groups and that has thebenefit of 2 sotorages so if a fialing server takes down the database files, then the other machine. Microsoft sql server on vmware vsphere availability and recovery. License individual virtual machines vm, and when licensing per core, buy core licenses only for the virtual cores assigned to the vm. Use powershell to send email notification for sql server cluster failover. Even more, sql server is actually officially supported on hyperv sql server 2008 is supported in virtual machine environments running on the hyperv role in windows server 2008 r2 and windows server 2008 standard, enterprise and datacenter editions. Mar 23, 2017 sql server vm performance with vmware vsphere 6. It is also rather important to mention the management tools, which are essential for operating in any virtual environment, in the hyperv vs vmware comparison.
Storage vmotion of a virtualized sql server database. Failover cluster instance with availability groups sql. We dont face some of the challenges outlined above as we have a small operations team responsible for the server, database and vmware environment. By richhimself on 05102016 30012017 in vmware tagged 2012 server cluster vmware, building sql server on vmware, cluster esx, esx vmware cluster, server cluster 2008 vmware, sql cluster, sql cluster vmware, sql permissions vmware, vmware, vmware cluster windows server, vmware clustering, vmware sql cluster, windows cluster 2008 vmware 2 comments. We have a 2012 windows failover cluster set up for sql server 2014 on vmware esxi, 6. Similar clustering is also possible with virtualized servers in a vsphere environment, but this requires a special configuration for the storage using raw device mapping. What i did was to compare vmware clustering with microsoft failover clustering. Microsoft windows server failover clustering wsfc with shared. Balancing resources for sql server clustering and consolidation. I have read and heard differing views on using sql clustering inside of esx, some. This guide, now named architecting microsoft sql server on vmware vsphere. High availability for sql server in vmware environments.
Read this document and get details of sql server where vmware vcenter provides a single userfriendly interface to manage virtual machines, physical servers and network and storage components. Alwayson failover cluster instance fci alwayson fci leverages windows server failover clustering wsfc functionality to provide local high availability through redundancy. This step configures and completes the failover cluster instance. Mar 14, 2016 microsoft sql server is the most virtualized enterprise mission critical application today. An activeactive failover cluster or multiinstance failover cluster, shares resources between virtual servers. Vmware ha hyperv ha sql clustering alwayson vmware ft hardware failure 4 min 4 min 30 seconds 3 minutes 30 seconds none rolling patching no no yes yes no os corruption no no yes yes no storage redundancy no no no yes sort of. What is a sql server failover clustering sql shack. We will be using the web client for this, since thats the direction vmware is pushing.
Sql connection or authentication failures, application ha can take action against individual windows and sql components eliminated reboot as the only option for resolution self healing this concept of self healing vs. Why your sql server cluster shouldnt be virtualized. What are the pros and cons of running sql server on a. If present, a standalone sql server instance always resides on a single node with a static instance network name. Install failover cluster instance sql server always on.
Interestingly, most commenters said, yes, microsoft clustering is complex, but no, vmware clustering is not, yet failed to explain exactly why. Only os sql server native high availability options like fci or availability groups will allow a nondisruptive os and sql server maintenance. Setup for failover clustering and microsoft cluster. Best practices for deploying sql server using vsphere. Assuming that the only failure is something like a crashed service in the primary server in the sql cluster so no data corruption, etc, the passive vm in the. There is only one scenario where you cant quite use vvols for sql server, and thats when you have shared storage between sql server instances, which is the case for failover cluster instances fci, which you probably just call clusters and vmware keeps calling mscs for microsoft cluster server, which is nomenclature from. An introduction to sql server clusters with diagrams. Apr 30, 2009 what i did was to compare vmware clustering with microsoft failover clustering. Sql server azure sql database azure synapse analytics sql dw parallel data warehouse before you install a sql server failover cluster, you must select the hardware and the operating system on which sql server will run. Understand how dynamic witness works for a sql server wfsc. Windows server failover clustering with sql server. This guide, now named architecting microsoft sql server on vmware vsphere best practices guide. Sql server clustering on vmware virtual servers with vmware ha. Sql server cluster vs mirror for high availability.
Right, but sql server clustering can be done in a different ways. Verify sql server cluster role on windows failover cluster. The recommendations and guidance in this document aim to. Is vmware clustering vmotion complex compared to microsoft. Traditionally, running microsoft sql server on the vmware vsphere platform offered multiple database availability and disaster recovery options using vmware features, such as vmware vsphere high availability and vmware vsphere distributed resource scheduler drs, with microsoft features, such as failover clustering. It will always have the same instance name, sql agent jobs, linked servers and logins wherever you bring it up. After the nodes are prepared for clustering, run setup on the node that owns the shared disk with the complete failover cluster functionality. Storage vmotion of a virtualized sql server database vmware. If present, a sql server fci is active on one of two or more possible failover nodes with a single virtual instance network name. Planning highly available, mission critical sql server. Creating an sql cluster on vmware richhimselfs blog. Cluster solutions on virtual machines are cheap to deploy.
Feb 16, 2012 sql connection or authentication failures, application ha can take action against individual windows and sql components eliminated reboot as the only option for resolution self healing this concept of self healing vs. High availability for sql server in vmware environments while. Sql server azure sql database azure synapse analytics sql dw parallel data warehouse a windows server failover cluster wsfc is a group of independent servers that work together to increase the availability of applications and services. Create a common operating environment across onpremises, private cloud, and public cloud services. The goal of these tests is to gain a better understanding of the impact of application io characteristics on svmotion and the effect svmotion has on application performance. Sql server requirements considerations when considering sql server deployments as candidates for virtualization, you need a clear understanding of the business and technical requirements for each database instance. Best practices for virtualizing and managing sql server 2012 6 6 introduction this guide provides highlevel best practices and considerations for deploying and managing microsoft sql server 2012 on a microsoft virtualization infrastructure. These requirements span multiple dimensions, such as availability. How to create rdm mappings for sql clustering with mscs on. Setup for failover clustering and microsoft cluster service covers esxi and vmware vcenter server. Sql server instances are actively hosted on a single node. Why your sql server cluster shouldnt be virtualized brent. Note this is not a guide to using microsoft cluster service or failover clustering. Vmware ha is not database server high availability brent ozar.
Monitor sql instance balance across windows cluster nodes using powershell. In recent years it has become a mainstream effort among vmware customers to virtualize critical databases to allow better agility and scale while increasing availability and operational efficiency. Some thoughts on clustering sql server virtual machines. Before installing failover clustering sql server always. Sql server on vmware frequently asked questions faq. Sql server level standard clustering is active passive and that will restart the sql server instance when the other fails, which still should be faster than restarting the vm. You also want to more lightly load your physical boxes, 14 vms as opposed to 510. Running microsoft sql server on vmware vsphere offers many options for database availability and disaster recovery utilizing the best features from both vmware and microsoft. A couple weekends ago, our server admin made some updates to the the ucs manager software, which in turn updated the fabric interconnects, so path b went down then path a when it was completed.
Sql server failover cluster instances fcis and availability groups. Even though vmotion issue is fixed in vsphere 6 i would go with sql server alwayson availability group option instead of shared disk failover clustering. Mar 21, 2017 cluster tutorial, cluster tutorial for beginners, clustering tutorial, server clustering tutorial, linux cluster tutorial, cluster concepts, cluster basics, cluster video, cluster tutorial videos. Multicloud management platform providing visibility, optimization, governance, and security. Setup for failover clustering and microsoft cluster service. I have read and heard differing views on using sql clustering inside of esx, some seems to say its fine others do not.
Intended audience this information is for system administrators who are familiar with vmware technology and microsoft cluster service. If both of the sql server vm cluster nodes exist on the same physical host, and that host fails, both of the sql server vm cluster nodes are going to fail as well. How to create rdm mappings for sql clustering with mscs on vmware 6. Nov 24, 2010 if both of the sql server vm cluster nodes exist on the same physical host, and that host fails, both of the sql server vm cluster nodes are going to fail as well.
Manage infrastructure, app delivery, and data center endpoint security from multiple clouds and platforms. There are four main node configurations available in sql server failover clustering. What vmware cant do is see an sql service crash inside a vm or a similar failure that doesnt completely take down the vm or the physical host, so thats where the clustering comes in. Generally that is used for physical servers not using the same storage to deliver high availability. On a failure it will attempt to restart the vm or group of vms on another node in the vmware cluster. Sql server 2008 r2 clustering inside vmware server fault. If you use inguest iscsi for mscs shared disk access then you wont have any issues with vmotion, and it. Two standalone physical database servers running alwayson availability groups are more reliable than just one server, but two virtual machines doing the same thing are even more reliable. Sql server 2008 is supported in virtual machine environments running on the hyperv role in windows server 2008 r2 and windows server 2008 standard, enterprise and datacenter editions. Ive published past performance studies with vsphere 5. If you proceed with creating a clustered instance of sql server, the instance will be hosted on a virtual server. Windows server failover cluster with sql server sql server. The system drive fills up because some potato decided to download a bunch of. Windows server failover cluster with sql server sql.
You can set up a second layer of failover at the server instance level by implementing sql server an fci together with the wsfc. Failover clustered instances fci vs availability groups ags. Sql server provides a variety of virtualization and cloud benefits that help you save money on database licensing and retain flexibility in your database deployments. Dec, 2019 after the nodes are prepared for clustering, run setup on the node that owns the shared disk with the complete failover cluster functionality. Microsoft sql server and vmware vsphere high availability. Setting up alwayson availability groups with sql server 2012 15. Virtualize clusters and alwayson availability groups. At the end of this step, you will have an operational sql server failover cluster instance.
Install hyperv failover clustering multipath io and. Jun 08, 2017 some workloads, like iis, work fine either way. Microsoft sql server is the most virtualized enterprise mission critical application today. I am working on a new windows 2008 r2 sql server r2 ha cluster and we are planning on running this inside of vmware esx 5. Architecting microsoft sql server on vmware vsphere.
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