Corporate statement for using a virtualized Microsoft SQL Server in combination with Exact products
Exact recognizes the trend to virtualize servers and workstations. More and more companies are virtualizing their servers and desktop environments, including the server running Microsoft SQL Server, which is used by Exact Globe Next, Exact Synergy, and Exact Synergy Enterprise as a database server.
Virtualizing a server running Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or higher is different compared to virtualizing other types of servers, for instance, terminal servers or application servers. For Microsoft SQL Server, disk I/O (Reading and writing data) is one of the crucial factors for performance, next to available memory and processor capacity. When virtualizing an operating system and server applications running in these operating systems (like Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Terminal Server, Internet Information Server, etc), it is important to make a distinction between the type of server applications running on the server. Depending on the type of service or application, it will affect the virtualization options that are possible. There are two methods to virtualize a server:
- Virtualizing several virtual servers on one physical host server. This is typically used for Microsoft Terminal Server and Microsoft Internet Information Server.
- Virtualizing several virtual servers on a storage area network (SAN). This is typically used for Microsoft SQL Server.
Virtualizing servers on one physical host
In this case, disk I/O performance is not a crucial factor. The virtual server is used primarily to host applications and make them available to the end-users, for example, running a terminal server \ Citrix server to bring applications to the end-user via a central location, or to run a web server to host a web based application. The role of these servers is to make applications available to end-users or to supply users with space to store documents and other data.
Virtualizing servers on a storage area network
This environment is used when the implementation of a virtual environment becomes larger, so more virtual machines are needed or in case database servers need to be virtualized. For database servers, there is a strong need for sufficient disk I/O performance (read/write performance). A database server is not used to host applications used by end-users; the focus is on delivering storage and performance to the applications used by end-users.
Support
Exact supports Exact Globe Next, Exact Synergy, and Exact Synergy Enterprise only in virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server using a Storage Area Network since this is the only method that can get an acceptable performance from Microsoft SQL Server. Furthermore the SQL databases should be placed on a dedicated Logical Unit Number (LUN) in the Storage Area Network (SAN) that can be attached to the Virtual SQL server as a separate data disk.
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Attachments & notes |
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Online help main |
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All - 0 |
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Document ID: |
21.603.931 |
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Exact Globe+
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Date: |
26-09-2022 |
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| Disclaimer |