General Question about sql DB for vcenter

[hriosm]

Basically we need to know how many SQL DB connections we need from a vCenter 5 instance?

Is it host dependent?

Is it guest dependent?

Is there a way we estimate how many connections?

Sql DBA told us we currently have a lot of connections, but we dont think that could be cauisng issues.

[weinstein5]

You should only have connections from vCenter Server and Update Manager Server as these are the only instances that will communicate with the DB server

[hriosm]

Thanks for your quick answer, i want to have more information from DBA, since they insist we have a lot of connection coming from vcenter, and we all know quantity of guest dont affect the DB connections since you told is only the update manager and  the vcenter.

Let me hear more from DBAs and i will let you know.

[RParker]

hriosm wrote:

Basically we need to know how many SQL DB connections we need from a vCenter 5 instance?

Just one.  vCenter is configured for 10 by default.

Is it host dependent?

No.

Is it guest dependent?

Yes, Windows.  you can have connections from other servers however.

Is there a way we estimate how many connections?

You only need one connection, but it really doesn't matter..

Sql DBA told us we currently have a lot of connections, but we dont think that could be cauisng issues.

.. SQL can handle thousands of connections, connections does NOT make a difference.  IO is the ONLY factor for SQL.  You can have many open connections, it just means there are simultaneous data connections, but throughput should NOT be affected.. unless your SQL host his having problems.. THEN your VI database may suffer.  That's the only thing the DBA should be concerned with, # of connections is a NON issue.

[hriosm]

DBA insist in fact that theres more than one connection coming from vcenter.

we all  have to have the certainty about the only one connection since we dont want to be under CAL licencing problems for SQL

You said to us about what we know that only one connection is needed, but please look the attached screenshot it show different things

Thank you in advance for your great advise.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

A SQL CAL isn't limited to just one db connection.  You'll have to license your CALs for each user or device that is going to use the database.  

Here's a thread with some more info - http://communities.vmware.com/thread/187735.

[hriosm]

Thanks for your answer i really appreciate that, what has not been answered from my screenshot i presented is why do we have all those Slleeping connections, that was the issue tha originated all this thread, because apparently we have more that one connection from our vcenter to our DB.

Thanks.

[hriosm]

even not a clear comment about the screenshot i sent, some articles and links presented i guess had what i need

[cblomart · Accepted solution]

vcenter uses a pool of connection ( 10 by default as already answered ). this is commonly done by web application to handle the db connections needed by multiple connection sessions (no need to reopen a db connection for each session ... opening a db connection takes sometime more time than the dumb select they do).

[hriosm]

Thanks a lot for this explanation, DBA confirmed what you said and now we are ok.

Regards