Which version of SQL 2005 is recommended STD or ENT?

[ChrisatVM]

Hi All,

Im planning an VI3 environment and would like to know which version is ideal for my requirements?

I have a very basic knowledge of SQL... but im learning.

I will have 3 IBM x3650- 2x quad core x5450 3GHz, 48GB, 2xSP FC HBA's, 6 GB NICs etc

The environment will be used for Disaster recovery and will potentialy have multiple clients on it in the future - cold/warm

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[Gerrit_Lehr]

For an envoironment of this size, SQL Express will be enough and it is supported and free. You dont need any special knowledge to set it up, except for backup maybe.

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[ChrisatVM]

Hi Sinac,

Thanks for the response, my understanding is that express is not suported in production.

This environment is DR, so it has potential to be used in anger for production.

[Gerrit_Lehr · Accepted solution]

It is supportes since 3.5, even for production use. VMWare ships VC with MS SQL Express. Have o look at Page 66 of

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_installation_guide.pdf

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[Dave_Mishchenko]

SQL Express is supported for up to 5 hosts and 50 VMs - page 5 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_compat_matrix.pdf

[ChrisatVM]

Thanks for the advice.

This environment is going to scale out pretty quickly, this is stage 1.

I would still like to know the wether it is worth getting STD or ENT knowing that I will have to address this at a later stage.

I am making a business case for it now and work for a company that produces more red tape than product, and do not wish to revisit the procurement,capital request,PO,Invoicing etc again

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Standard will be fine. You'll be able to support 4 CPUs (up to 16 cores today) - the OS limit for memory and most of the recovery features like mirroring, log shipping and clustering are part of standard. I've never seem any mention using the advanced options like indexed views on a VC database. If you needed to run many SQL VMs then enterprise would have some potential licensing benefits. If you plan to run a dedicated SQL Server in this environment you could always add the VC database to it.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx

[jhanekom]

These days, Enterprise edition mostly only makes sense in large ERP environments - my vote is also for standard edition.

You can view a detailed feature comparison matrix here: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx

The supported revisions of SQL for various versions of VirtualCenter are documented here: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_compat_matrix.pdf

[ChrisatVM]

Thanks Chaps!

[azn2kew]

Are there anything requires dedicated cluster and advance SQL servers for redundancy and performance. If you dont' have anything in placed, I would still use SQL 2005 Express because it supports up to 5 host and 50 VMs unless you are expanding to more VMs. 3 (IBM x3650 with 8 cores) logically speaking you should have at least 8 cores x 8 vm x 3 hosts = 192 VMs total. Technically speaking, you should design your ESX cluster with (N+1) or at least 75% resource usuage in order for adequate failover to remaining hosts. RAM is 32GB x 3 hosts = 96GB total. If one host is down, you have 64GB left, for SC/Vmkernel uses 1GB each host so 62GB left you might be able to run between 30-50 VMs depends how you assign memory to them.

You have mentioned this will going to expand and growth in the future, so the answer to this should be SQL 2005 Standard edition which will fullfil what you need for future plan especially SQL log shipping, mirroring etc..is best practices choice. You also have the capability to host other applications like Citrix, SCOM, SCCM, anything that requires SQL database on dedicated environment.

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Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant