New Virtual Workshop Announcement Tomorrow
SQL Server Security – Registration will open tomorrow for the December 10 virtual workshop, the next in our series.
Featured Article(s)
Transparent Data Encryption in SQL Server
Security is the first concern a developer face when the decision to create a database or project is taken. Encryption is one of the methods with the best performance, but it has to be done correctly or the results would be a complete failure.
Instances vs. Virtualization…Your choice?
Last week I asked about virtualization and the pros and cons of using that approach vs. the approach of working with instances of SQL Server. Here’s Jonathan’s take:
"From a strictly licensing stand point it is cheaper to consolidate with multiple instances vs multiple VM’s when using Standard Edition. If you neeeded 8 instances of SQL that is only one license when running named instances. However to have 8 VM’s on Standard Edition would be 8 licenses for standard edition. Enterprise Edition makes the difference since you can spin up 8 VM’s with a single server license or by licensing the sockets for the server.
We looked at both recently since we are a heavily virtualized environment as a possible cost saver for our licensing. It is easier to add additional resources to a physical implementation with multiple instances from my experience. If you were to upgrade the server from 32GB RAM to 64GB RAM, all it takes is to power off the server, add the memory, power it on, and then reconfigure the instances maxservermemory settings to utilize the additional memory as needed. However for a virtual implementation, you have to power off the VM’s, power off the host, add the memory, power on the host, reconfigure the VM’s to see the additional memory, power on the VM’s, and then reconfigure SQL to use the memory.
The other trade off with multiple VM’s is that you have wasted disk space from the redundant OS installations unless you have a de-duping technology in place for your storage layer. You also have less resources available per instance since the OS has its own overhead, processor and memory wise. If you had a 64GB RAM Server with 8 VM’s on it, you would need 2GB per VM for the OS to run in, which means you now have 48GB for SQL. On a multi-instance server, you would need to reserve between 4-6GB for the OS, and the rest could be allocated to SQL.
In the end we stayed with our multiple VM setup because it already exists and there wasn’t budget for this year to plan out the multi-instance environment properly."
DBASchool – In-Person Class – Hope To See You There!
Instructor: Stephen Wynkoop (me!)
I’ll be teaching a 3-day class on the things that you really need to know about SQL Server. We’ll have hands-on exercises, lots of discussions and real-world lessons learned. Check out the site here and reserve your spot – we will not allow more than 15 students total (we do have seats available, but more have responded than seats in class, so reserve as soon as you can confirm) so we can keep the class to a great size for discussions, demos and such. I can’t wait to work with everyone – register ASAP if you’ll be attending.
[Class Information] (check out the quotes on the site too from past attendees!)
Did You Know?
When working with SQL Server and SharePoint, you do have options when creating content databases in support of web applications. Rather than letting the tool do the automatic work for you of allocating and setting up database properties, set up the new database yourself and indicate the settings you need. Once created, you can use the admin tools in SharePoint to point things to your new database that runs the way you need.
Featured White Paper(s)
15 Minute Guide to Building Efficient Infrastructures for Microsoft SharePoint Server
Read the guide to learn how to build efficient infrastructures for Microsoft SharePoint Server environments-whether physical… (read more)