Building a Better Workstation Steve Wake Consultant, RevGen Partners President, Denver SQL Server User Group

Agenda Hardware Local vs. Virtual vs. Cloud VM Platforms Virtual Drive Setup/Organization SQL Server Installs BIDS, SSDT & Visual Studio Handling Updates Recommendations

Hardware Laptop or Desktop? Usually comes down to portability vs. remote access as hardware has become so similar LaptopDesktop PortableMore power/capabilities 12-16GB RAM at a minimumEasy to upgrade SSDsRedundancy possible Not as easy to upgradeUsually not portable (remote login)

Local vs. Virtual vs. Cloud Things to think about: –Is speed important (performance testing)? –Ability to reset and re-use –RAM/Drive Space/Processor –Access to Internet at reliable speed –Cost (licenses & usage) In my experience choice between Local & Virtual

Which VM Platform? Main choices: –Hyper-VHyper-V –VMWare Workstation (Fusion on Mac)VMWare Workstation Fusion –Parallels (Mac only)Parallels –VirtualBoxVirtualBox After years of trying all of the above I have found VirtualBox to be the most flexible and is FREE Install additions into each VM

Virtual Drive Setup/Organization Fixed Size vs. Differential drives? Create base OS images with other required software/settings Copy/Clone base OS images to create multiple separate VMs Full Clone/Linked Clone? Take advantage of snapshots to handle updates/changes

SQL Server Installs Single version or Multiple versions? For VMs take advantage of clones to save time installing Keep licensing in mind Don’t forget to install appropriate version of BIDS/SSDT/SSDT-BI/VS and any other tools you need

BIDS & SSDT SQL tools change with each version of SQL Server and Visual Studio SSDT/SSDT-BI no longer included in installer with SQL Server 2014 (SSMS still included) Move to web install to allow for more frequent updates (sync up with Visual Studio) ToolSS 2005SS 2008 (R2)SS 2012SS 2014 BIDSXX SSDTXXXX (VS2013) SSDT-BIXXX (web only)

BIDS & SSDT Tool AS 05 IS 05 RS 05 DB 05 AS 08 IS 08 RS 08 DB 08 AS 12 IS 12 RS 12 DB 12 AS 14 IS 14 RS 14 DB 14 BIDS 2005 XXX BIDS 2008 (R2) X^ XXX SSDT VS 2010 X^ XXXX SSDT VS 2012 X^X SSDT VS 2013SSDT VS 2013* X^ X SSDT-BI VS 2012 X^ XXX SSDT-BI VS 2013 X^ XXX * SSDT functionality for SQL Server 2014 is included with all versions of Visual Studio 2013 and cannot be downloaded separately any longer ^ Previous versions supported, but will upgrade project files to specified current version

Visual Studio Visual Studio is NOT required for ANY SQL Server BI project development Visual Studio licensed versions can be installed on same machine as BIDS/SSDT BIDS/SSDT will add project templates to existing Visual Studio versions Visual Studio Express 2013 is FREE for 5 or less developers, includes VS Online!Visual Studio Express 2013 VS Online

Handling Updates Protect your systems before doing OS/application updates VMs – snapshot before doing updates, restore snapshot if update goes wrong System Restore for local/cloud – create manual restore point (System control panel/System Protection tab)

Steve’s Recommendations Laptop with 12GB min, SSDs (as big as you can afford), multiple cores capable of Intel VT-x (BIOS setting) – use Intel ARKIntel ARK VirtualBox Dedicate 6-8GB min to VM Differential drives in VM to save HDD space Create base OS VM Use base OS VM clone for SQL Server VMs

Summary Hardware recommendations Local, VM or Cloud Hyper-V, VMWare or VirtualBox Fixed/Differential Disks in VM & Cloning SQL Server Installations BIDS, SSDT & Visual Studio

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