Justin Langford Principal Consultant

Business and technical drivers  Why consolidate?  Type of consolidation Planning and considerations  Key considerations  Designing SQL instance and common configurations Guiding principles  Consolidation process  Migration Techniques Potential issues and solutions  Shared components  Using WSRM or Resource Governor

SQL Server is prolific in most mid-large organisations Wide selection of versions and editions Many bespoke/ non-standard configurations Servers deployed “per-application” Many servers under-utilised Licensing and maintenance costs

Data/ database/ instance consolidation Host same databases with fewer servers Share resources across multiple environments Better resource utilisation Reduced support costs

BIZSQLSERVER2SERVER1 BIZSQL SQL2 SQL1 BIZSRVSERVER1 BIZSQL SQL1 SERVER1 BIZSQL SQL1

Windows 2008 Server Virtual Machine Manager Virtual Machine

VirtualisationConsolidation Same Goal reduce physical serversGoal to reduce physical servers Savings on power, licensing, maintenance Performance concerns Different Same number of O/SFewer O/S Same databases/ instanceMore databases/ instance Same number of instancesFewer instances No Windows/ SQL UpgradeCan upgrade Windows and SQL “Black-box” approachLots of engineering/ test effort Additional layer of technologyMore mixed workload Hardware abstractionTight hardware integration Consolidation Virtualisation

Affordable performance Multi-core CPUs 64-bit Memory Disk I/O – Solid State Disks Core 1 Core 2 Core 3 Core 4

Management & Administrative Processes Standards Independent Fewer Physical Locations Several One Multiple SQL Instances per Windows Windows Per Server One Many - Virtualisation DBs per SQL Instance Some Hundreds Some Data/Database Duplication Lot Current & “To Be” position along each dimension

Resource requirements of databases  Processor, memory, disk I/O and network  TempDB usage Dependencies outside user database  Third party support  Instance-wide settings, security model  Replication, Log Shipping, Database Mirroring Collation and sort order

Why consolidate? Reduced costs  Standardisation  Better server utilisation  Space, electricity, cooling  License costs Better control of IT Processes  Consistent operations, BaR, DR, Maintenance Improved Business Integration

Multi-Instance Flexibility to based on Service Level Agreements (SLA) requirements  Performance  Backup / Recovery  Security  Change control  Operational  Upgrade Multiple development environments on single server Support larger workloads on a single server Several trade-offs/ considerations (more later)

Single Instance Avoid of fixed overhead of multiple instance  Fixed server memory configuration  Single set of.EXEs,.DLLs etc. Some components are always shared anyway Dynamic memory for single instance server Less administrative work Several trade-offs and considerations (more later)

Multi-Windows Instance (Virtualisation): More: Provides O/S Isolation Too many instances decrease value of high end servers Less: Reduces scale-up capability Can increase risk (single OS point of failure)

Consolidation StrategyPeopleProcessTechnology

Strategy Motivation for consolidation and end goals Measure/ quantify benefits Establish Guiding Principles People Potential change in the ownership (DBA Custodianship) of data Technically Database Ownership (DBO) can be retained Technically Database Ownership (DBO) can be retained Ongoing support and change management System Administration role change System Administration role change

Process Administrative, Operational, Performance Monitoring/Tuning, Backup/Restore, Capacity Planning Migration and rollback planning Technology CPU, memory management, I/O subsystem Workload isolation Consolidation – name conflicts, objects, security, logins Management Focus Critical to success

SQL 2000/ 2005 & older instances SQL 2008 (2005) Instances Much More Challenging One at a time or en-masse? One at a time Current Environment “To Be” Environment Monitor behavior Stabilise Staging Environment Test & Production Consolidated SQL 2008

Evaluate, Customise, and Adopt: Start by consolidating non-mission critical workload Upgrade to SQL 2008 before consolidating Consolidate similar workloads into single SQL Server instance Avoid bug fixes during consolidation Maintain transparent user experience Drive standardisation (configuration and operations)

Stage 1 – Envision 1.Current Environment Assessment  Discovery/ Audit  Business Requirements: SLA, RPO, RTO  Workload profile: transaction volumes, processor, disk, memory  SQL Server feature usage: Linked servers, Extended SP 2.Identify Target Environment & Develop Consolidation Principles  First cut “To Be” environment  Discuss, gather feedback, revise target environment  Review financial justification - RoI  Develop Consolidation Guiding Principles

Stage 2 – Plan & Design 3.Design ‘Future’ Consolidated Infrastructure  Develop design Blueprint  Design Review 4.Service, User & Data Migration Planning  Migration approach  Deployment planning  Sequencing of Applications, Users, Data  Design / develop migration scripts

Stage 3 – Implement 5.Commission consolidated environment for test  Test parallel to production  Migrate/ test database Test Migration process Test Migration process Load/ capacity testing highly recommended Load/ capacity testing highly recommended  Gain confidence in platform and workload profile  Isolate, identify, fix issues

Stage 4 – Deploy & Stabilise 6.Build & deploy Production Consolidated SQL Service  Consolidate/migrate incrementally Capture baseline Capture baseline Add incrementally (ONE at a time) Add incrementally (ONE at a time) Stabilise Stabilise Measure again Measure again  Transparent User Experience 7.Measure new Service  Compare with ‘old’  Retire old servers

Min/ Max server memory CPU affinity mask Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) Failover cluster  Possible owners  Preferred owners  AntiAffinityClassName SERVER1 BIZSQL SQL1

Resource Governor  Min/ max CPU  Min/ max Memory Un-managed  Worker threads  TempDB  Plan cache SERVER1 SQL1

Proper hardware sizing critical Good storage configuration is critical:  Use fixed or pass-thru disks (avoid dynamic disks)  Avoid thin-provisioning  Tune storage configuration Limitations:  4 virtual processor per guest  64 cores in host  64 GB memory in host x64 benefits are significant Avoid over-committing CPU or memory Start with single VPU Recommendations

Virtual machine failover High Availability regardless of Windows or SQL edition Live Migration with Hyper-V  Uses Failover clustering  Requires Win 2008 R2  Single host failover

Using virtualisation to provide site resilience Site-to-site disaster recovery

SQL Server Consolidation Whitepaper SQL Server Virtualisation Whitepaper 5bfcf076d9b9/SQL2008inHyperV2008.docx 5bfcf076d9b9/SQL2008inHyperV2008.docx Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730&displaylang=en 4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730&displaylang=en 4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730&displaylang=en Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM)

Plan, Design, Deliver Consolidation Construct Guiding Principles Identify good candidates for consolidation Providing workload isolation An approach to consolidating an estate