Virtualizing SQL Server with VMware: Doing it Right

by Michael Corey / Jeff Szastak / Michael Webster Corey / Szastak / Webster, Jeff Szastak

The start-to-finish guide to virtualizing business-critical SQL Server databases on VMware vSphere 5   By virtualizing business-critical databases, enterprises can drive far more value from existing IT infrastructure. But squeezing maximum performance out of a virtualized database instance is an art as much as a science. This indispensable start-to-finish guide brings together all the techniques, tips, and insights you need to succeed.   Drawing on unsurpassed personal experience, three leading experts share complete best practices for deploying business-critical database servers in virtualized vSphere 5 environments. They cover the entire project lifecycle, bridging technical and communications gaps between SQL Server and VMware professionals that often make database virtualization more difficult than it needs to be.   You&;ll find specific guidance for architects and administrators responsible for systems, storage, databases, applications, or VMware virtualization. The authors also present detailed, start-to-finish coverage of performance baselining and all you need to make your virtualized databases as fast as they are cost effective. Although this book focuses on SQL, the authors&; proven guidance for enhancing performance can be leveraged by any IT professional virtualizing a demanding Tier 1 application.   Coverage includes        &;    Business cases for database consolidation, Database as a Service (DaaS), efficiency, and &;SLAs on steroids&;      &;    Using the redundancy inherent in virtualization  to improve availability      &;    Constructing a careful, conservative implementation plan      &;    Balancing disk, CPU, memory, and network for superior performance      &;    Mastering the five key principles of database storage design      &;    Leveraging SQL MAX, page locking, NUMA, reservations, swapping, large memory pages, and more      &;    Ensuring responsiveness by providing a fast, reliable, low-latency network      &;    Supporting advanced AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances and Availability Groups      &;    Baselining physical systems and properly determining resource requirements      &;    Configuring performance tests from beginning  to end      &;    Migrating existing SQL Server databases  onto a vSphere platform      &;    Avoiding traps and pitfalls in virtualizing production databases      &;    Managing and monitoring virtualized database instances and resources    

508 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2013