SQL Server with Mr. Denny » Consolidation

SQL Server Consolidation at #SQLExcursions

Denny Cherry — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:00:50 +0000

The fifth and final session that I’ll be presenting at SQL Excursions is on SQL Server Consolidation. There are lots of ways to consolidate SQL Server databases, and some times the wrong method of consolidation is selected by people. Knowing all of the options when working on a SQL Server Consolidation project is key to a successful consolidation project. In this session we’ll look at how to evaluate which consolidation option is best for different kinds of databases so that you can maximize your SQL Server infrastructure and minimize consolidation costs without impacting post consolidation performance.

I hope that the sessions that Tom and I are presenting at SQL Excursions sound interesting and would help you and your employer succeed in your future projects. Personally I feel that the costs to go to an event like this are minimal compared to the massive savings that a company could realize over time from the information which their DBA would be able to bring back to the office.

If you haven’t signed up yet, now is the time.

See you in Napa September 22nd-24th,

Denny

Auto Close, Contained Databases and DDoS

Denny Cherry — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:21:00 +0000

One of the features which has been announced to be coming in SQL Server “Denali” is the “Contained Database” feature. The feature which I’m looking for the most from Contained Databases is the ability to create a user within the database without having to first create a login for the user. This will make database consolidation and migration projects so much simpler in the future as you won’t have to first create the user in the destination instance with the same SID, or risk having to resync up the logins and users using the sp_change_users_login system stored procedure.

However, there is a little catch with having a lot of contained databases, using contained authentication on a single server, especially if the auto close flag is enabled like it often is on hosting companies servers. If you are using contained databases, and a user attempts to log into the contained database, but has the wrong password, the database must be opened the password checked, then the database closed. If this was to begin happening to a large number of contained databases the SQL Server could end up crashing itself as it’s trying to open and close all these databases. The reason that I see this happening on hosting company servers more than anywhere else, is because hosting companies put lots, and I mean lots, of databases on a single SQL Server instance. If that server was exposed to the Internet (which they often are so their customers can log into the server via Management Studio) then this becomes an even bigger problem.

Basically what I’m trying to say here is if you have a lot of databases on the server, and you use the auto-close flag on the databases to keep databases that aren’t being used from taking any memory, you’ll need to change this practice before you start deploying contained databases on SQL Server “Denali” when it releases.

Denny

Join me and Marathon Technologies as I talk about Consolidation and Virtualization

Denny Cherry — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:00:53 +0000

Join me Wednesday March 9th at 8am Pacific (11am Eastern) as I join Marathon Technologies as I present a webcast titled “Controlling SQL Server Sprawl: The Consolidation Conundrum and Availability Imperative“. During this session I’ll be talking about some of the benefits and risks consolidating SQL Server databases and instances.

Denny

Managing Multiple Databases on a Single Server

Denny Cherry — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:07:53 +0000

Back in November I wrote an article for Enterprise IT Planet entitled “Managing Multiple Databases on a Single Server” in which I go over the potential problems you can face when consolidating instances of SQL Server.

Denny

SQL Server consolidation: Why it’s an optimization technique

Denny Cherry — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:58:51 +0000

This morning I released another tip on SearchSQLServer.com called “SQL Server consolidation: Why it’s an optimization technique“. It’s a quick overview on consolidating SQL Server Instances onto a single server along with some of the gotchas.

Denny

Don’t Consolidate Yourself Into Performance Problems – Archive

Denny Cherry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:55:55 +0000

The webcast which I did for Quest Software called Don’t Consolidate Yourself Into Performance Problems is now available for viewing after the fact.

This is the webcast which I did last week for Quest Software. It you had signed up for the session Quest should have sent you an email with this URL already.

Thanks,

Denny

Don’t Consolidate Yourself Into Performance Problems

Denny Cherry — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:05:05 +0000

Consolidated too many databases or too many instances onto a single server? Got users screaming for their own servers back?

Join myself and David Swanson from Quest Software (and frequent poster on SQLServerPedia.com) as we show you how to identify problematic applications so that they don’t take down all of the other applications on the server at the webcast “Don’t Consolidate Yourself Into Performance Problems“. Attend this webcast to save your consolidation project and to keep your users happy.

The webcast will be on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 8 a.m. Pacific / 11 a.m. Eastern / 4 p.m. United Kingdom / 5 p.m. Central Europe. After the presentation there will be a Q&A session where David and I will answer as many questions as possible.

Denny