Virtualcenter 2.5 & SQL 2005 - Edition and Microsoft licensing?

[desp5959]

If I wanted to install SQL and just use it for Virtualcenter and nothing else, can I just get the Workgroup edition with a single CAL? Does anyone know the actual Microsoft licensing requirements for SQL for Virtualcenter?

[malaysiavm]

for your SQL, you can just go with the MSDE free version if the DB is not big. Beside that, about the licensing, the standard version with minimum CAL should work for you in this case. Get the Sales Reps from the software house, they will explain to you in details.

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[desp5959]

My database will not be big, but I thought MSDE was not supported in a production environment?

[Troy_Clavell]

MSDE is not supported with VC 2.5, if going the free edition it must be SQL Express (and in my opinion should only be used in a test scenario). I don't know how licensing is, but If you have an enviornment in which you can foresee getting larger, my suggestion would be SQL 2005 on a physical cluster.

[desp5959]

By MSDE I meant SQL Express... This environment is going to be small for a while... 2-3 ESX servers. But I do not want to install SQL Express and then be told by support that it is not supported.

[IRIX201110141]

MSSQL Express is supported by VMware for VI Center or what is the reason to ships this version of SQL engine with VI Center software? The only thing to keep in mind is that the the Express version cant be bigger as 4Gb in size. So it depends on the number of hosts/VM and the settings for logging if you reach the 4GB limit sometimes.

regards

Joerg

[RParker]

for your SQL, you can just go with the MSDE free version if the DB is not big

Actually the common misconception is that MSDE is some hybrid SQL version, it's not. SQL Express is a full version. MSDE is the predecessor to SQL Express. The ONLY difference between them is CPU and memory level support. MSDE is 1 CPU with 1GB memory and 4GB database limit. But for all intents and purposes MSDE is a FULL version of SQL.

So why VM Ware can't support MSDE, it's not a lot of sense, unless they feel that the Database will grow beyond the 4Gb limit, so you are correct, if the DB isn't too big, MSDE is fine for probably MOST VC database.

[RParker]

MSSQL Express is supported by VMware for VI Center or what is the reason to ships this version of SQL engine with VI Center software?

Yes it is a fully capable version. The interesting thing is that it does come bundled, but you can't remote connect to MSDE, I think it has to be a local installation, and since they recommend keep the Database separate from the VC instance, that could be part of the reason.

MSDE is for testing (VM Ware practice, which is why it's included with VC), but there is no reason why it can't be used

[tWiZzLeR]

From what I can find in VMware's most current documentation is that using "MS SQL Server 2005 Express is intended to be used for small deployments of up to 5 hosts and 50 virtual machines".

(see pages 19 and 65)

So, to me, it looks like using SQL 2005 Express is supported for small deployments. I have just purchased the Midsized Acceleration Kit so I will not have more than 3 hosts and will be using VC Foundation so this sounds like a good fit for our environment. I will also be running VC in a VM so this setup will provide me with greater availibility using HA as I will not need to ensure that a seperate database server is also running for VC to work.

[RParker]

MS SQL Server Express is a LOCAL install not remote, and you can't remote connect to a Express version. And since VM Ware highly encourages and is best practice to keep the VC separate from the SQL instance for performance, it's therefore implied that SQL Express should NOT be used for anything OTHER than testing purposes

Therefore SQL 2005 Standard or Enterprise are recommended

Also the problem with this scenario is you should always think ahead. Are you intending to NEVER grow beyond your 3 servers? Are you always going to remain local and never expand beyond a single machine? There is a reason this is called: 'enterprise' applications and not desktop.... Think outside the box!

[tWiZzLeR]

Actually, I was thinking "outside of the box" by running vCenter in a VM with HA. Also, keep in mind that "enterprise" means different things to different environments. In our case, we wanted VI3 enterprise so that we could do HA and vMotion and in the next 5 years we will not be growing beyond these three ESX servers.

Initially we will only be deploying 2 ESX servers with a SAN and we only have <15 virtual servers. This number of servers is not expected or forecasted to grow. So again, to me, SQL 2005 Express sounds like a good fit as performance should not be an issue running it and vCenter together on the same server.

[tlyczko]

Hello twizzler,

I'm in exactly the same situation -- Midsize Kit, 2-3 hosts, 10-15 VMs in foreseeable future -- and have basically made the same decision.

I know we may grow beyond 2-3 hosts but that's 2-3 years away, so I have plenty of time to prepare etc., since I'll see that change coming and can transfer the database, set up a new VC installation, etc. etc.

I would like to know how you are doing the VUM (VMware update manager) part of things?? It is included with VC.

BTW RParker tends to be quite vehement in everything he says -- many of his comments are very good but often they seem like he is the only way to do things.

Thank you, Tom

[apatel1]

I've done this in my smaller deployments as well. It would take a while for the database to grow that large in my opinion, and if the time to do that comes, migrating the database to a full SQL install isn't all that difficult. And while it is not remotely accessible, you can easily get many of the management capabilities by installing SQL Server Management Studio Express on the vCenter box:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&Displa...

Hope that helps! Please help me out by marking my response as "helpful" or "correct" if you feel that it was useful!

-Amit

[tlyczko]

Remote access to SQL Express:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;914277

It's not remote access that's the big problem, one can just RDP into the server VM and run SQL Management Studio etc., it's that SQL Express doesn't have an agent like SQL Standard for doing things like backup jobs and scheduling things etc.

There's several different solutions to that but I don't have them all handy, if someone is interested please PM me, ExpressMaint is the only one I can remember, and it runs backups, some optimizations, etc. I use it with Task Manager on a PC at work. There's 1 or 2 other similar tools like this.

HTH Tom