Chapter 3 : Designing a Consolidation Strategy MCITP Administrator: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database Server Infrastructure Design Study Guide (70-443)

Server Consolidation Reduce number of physical servers Consolidation may be to one or multiple instances © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

4 Phases of Consolidation Based on Microsoft Solutions Framework Each phase builds on the next First phase determines if you will proceed © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 1 - Envisioning Form a team –Include a member of the operational team –Be sure you have business user or stakeholder participating –The team will determine if a consolidation effort should proceed after the analysis © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 1 - Envisioning Why Consolidate? –Cost –Security –Centralized Management –Increased ROI –Optimized use of resources © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 1 - Envisioning Why Not Consolidate? –Cost –Security –Impact of one application on another –Employee Issues –Risk Factors © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 1 - Envisioning Develop Goals –Business goals –Technical goals Types of consolidation –Instance consolidation –Physical server consolidation –Geographic consolidation –Storage consolidation © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 1 - Envisioning Develop Guidelines –Rules for consolidation –Business and technical items Analyze the Environment –Document current instances –Analyze application needs and performance. –Monitor performance metrics © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 1 - Envisioning Other factors –SLAs –Geographical issues –Associated or linked systems –Extended Stored Procedures (XPs) –Collation conflicts Use all information to make a decision to move to Phase 2 © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 2 - Planning Assuming there is a reason to consolidate, begin planning. Details for how instances will be consolidated. Basic procedures and processes developed here. Make hardware sizing decisions © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 2 - Planning Evaluate CPU Data –Extrapolate loads to new servers. –Keep expected load < 70% Evaluate Memory data –Be aware of multiple instance issues –Consider 64-bit platforms Evaluate Disk data –Requirements may go down © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 2- Planning Evaluate Disk data (cont’d) –Ensure there is adequate throughput –Be aware of tempdb requirements for all instances. Initial Decisions –Be sure your sizing decisions are sound based on extrapolations. –Double check tempdb loads. © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 2 - Planning Initial Decisions (cont’d) –Run Upgrade Advisor on old hardware Considering multiple instances –Be sure applications support named instances –Ensure there is adequate memory © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 2 - Planning 64-bit –Hardware becoming more commonplace. –Be sure you have administrative support –Large memory space can greatly improve performance. © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 2 - Planning High Availability –Increased risk with multiple applications on one server –Can mitigate with clustering or other HA technologies Multiple Iterations –This process will require multiple passes –As issues arise, use feedback to alter the plan © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 2 - Planning Migrating Applications –Logins and users –Security Issues –Domain Issues Cross domain permissions might require domain administrator input. –DTS -> SSIS migration issues © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 3 – Developing At this point, the plan is moving forward. Specific details for individual machines Acquire Hardware –As close to actual size –Validate decisions before going live © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 3 – Developing Proof of Concept –First big test –Perform using the same procedures and hardware as the final consolidation –Simulate Live load © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 3 - Developing Pilot –First actual consolidation –Use less critical/lower profile database for the pilot –Use mistakes and lessons learned for future consolidations © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 3 - Developing Re-examine your design –After the pilot there should be a debriefing period –Examine the pilot success or failure critically –If sizing is an issue, consider adding more hardware to pad other consolidations © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Phase 4 - Deploying Final Phase Pilot results should be carefully examined Perform all other consolidations according to a schedule Space out consolidations –Allow for stabilization of applications –Allow staff to recover from stress of consolidation. –Use feedback from all prior consolidations for planning © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.

Summary Plan carefully Be sure work is done on each phase before moving to the next Use results and feedback from all prior work as planning for the next task © Wiley Inc All Rights Reserved.