Reasonable virtualization of SQL Server

Reasonable Virtualization

Believe it or not, virtualization is a clever way to bring performance benefits to SQL Server. This seems counterintuitive; after all, the focus of virtualization is on running multiple workloads on a single host. So is it not possible to get better SQL Server performance by completely assigning the entire computer to SQL Server?

In general, you will do so. If you can completely assign the entire physical server to a single SQL Server database, do so. However, many organizations are accustomed to installing multiple databases, or even multiple instances, in their SQL Server system. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, SQL Server is designed to do this, but it does not provide the flexibility of the available hardware resources that are compatible with the workload.

Conversely, when migrating these databases to a virtual machine, the total amount of resources consumed may be less than the resources of the entire physical server. SQL Server is one of the best virtual machine client applications that can be split into multiple instances of SQL Server and each instance occupies a single virtual machine, which allows for greater flexibility. With real-time migration technology, you can quickly migrate virtual machines from one host to another, reassigning virtual machines to make better use of existing hardware resources, based on current workloads.

You can use a method like cluster technology, including Windows cluster services. Partition the database into different instances of SQL Server in the cluster (in the final analysis, the SQL Server instance is a form of virtualization). You can then move these instances at will without worrying about the availability of the database. If database a needs to be scaled up in an afternoon, you can close other instances of the database cluster node and make resources available for that specified instance. This dynamic scaling capability can be impressive, but it does require your organization to develop a sophisticated performance monitoring and response model.

If you're planning to spend a lot of money on new server hardware, it makes sense to combine some resource-sharing plans, such as clustering or virtualization. This allows expensive new hardware to maximize its capabilities at all times to meet the user's performance requirements.