May 13, 2005 at 8:33 am
I'm looking for feedback from other Companies that have done SQL Server consolidation. We are an Insurance company that has exploded to 70+ and growing SQL Servers in 3 years as we try to bring in new apps to replace the mainframe. We are realizing that buying a box for every new large project or every purchased application that demands a dedicated database server is filling up our server room with expensive little or mid sized boxes that all need individual management, patching, 3rd party tools for backup and monitoring (we get killed by this with per CPU purchases). Has anyone had good or bad experience with doing server consolidation? Recommendations for vendors? Our hope is to get to a more managable amount of servers or a "SQL Server Mainframe" Thanks!
May 13, 2005 at 9:17 am
Look into VMWare (server virtualization). A company that I previously worked for had a lot of success consolidating their servers (including SQL Server) using this product. It is especially nice if you get their ESX version (enterprise version). With their VMotion product, you can turn several VMWare servers into a server farm and move virtual SQL Servers, IIS, Exchange, etc. between the physical servers with no disconnects to the clients.
May 13, 2005 at 4:00 pm
We've done some consolidation in our shop (also insurance company!). We have one consolidated server with databases supporting 13 different applications (small compared to what you're talking about!) It has worked amazingly well. The biggest challenge so far has been trying to get maintenance windows where we can bring the server down for any reason. Its kind of difficult to coordinate among so many different user groups, some of whom have 8-5 requirements, some 24-7, and still others midnight-8. On the up side, we've only found it necessary to bring it down twice in the last year or so, the second time happens tomorrow!
Steve
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