vCSA and VUM database(s), vPostgres+MS SQL DB or only MS SQL DB?

[lyngsie08]

Going to do a fresh installation of vSphere 6U1 using vSCA and VUM on Windows 2012 R2. I had planned to use the vPostgres database for vCSA, and the SQL Express for VUM. But VUM release notes says that SQL Express should not be used, if you have more than 5 hosts and 50 VMs. That is exactly what we have now, and we do (of course) expect a growth with this new environment (and hardware).

So would you recommend me to stay with the Postgres database for vCSA or use the same SQL database as I will put VUM DB on?

[mcrape]

AFAIK there aren't any advantages to having the VCSA use a SQL database vs Postgres. The limitation on the SQL size is related to what the free version can handle - if you put too much data in there you will hit the wall. Having the VCSA store its data in its own database will alleviate this issue.

On a related note, have you considered deploying the VCSA appliance? It won't take care of VUM, but you'll have a nice standalone vCenter appliance that might make things a bit easier to manage (i.e. no downtime when installing Windows patches).

[lyngsie08]

I was planning to use the vCSA as I wrote. I think the "A" in vCSA stands for Appliance. My issue concerns whether to use the SQL Express that comes with the VUM installer, or use a standard MS SQL database. The database limitations in the release notes for VUM says that max. 5 hosts and 50 VMs can run on the express edition, and that is almost what we have now (5 hosts and 45 VMs and growing). But since yesterday I have read, that the vCenter appliance does not work with a MS SQL database, so I guess it leaves me with installing vCSA (with the integrated postgres DB) and then I have to setup a standard MS SQL database for VUM (on the same machine).

Please correct me if I'm wrong. By the way, does the vCenter appliance take care of database maintenance?

[mcrape]

Apologies - I completely misread the original question.

If you have a standard edition of SQL Server available, you should use that to avoid any growth issues down the line (it will also mean you aren't adding another database to maintain).

I haven't seen any documentation that explicitly states that VUM will not work with more than 5 hosts / 50 VMs. I always assumed that was a restriction based on how large SQL Express databases can grow.

[dmanconi · Accepted solution]

There is a limitation in using the SQL express db with 5 hosts etc, however SQL express db's can grow up to 10GB, which vum is unlikely to grow to. I have deployed SQL express with more nodes and vms than recommended for vum( 14 hosts 150 vm's) and the db was only 250 mb with two vum update policies etc. if you can justify the am ist of full blown SQL got for it, but SQL express works fine. Just remember to install the SQL admin studio to allow administration of the SQL instance.

[dmanconi]

The other limitation with SQL express to be aware of is you cannot schedule backup jobs from the SQL admin programme, you have to use scheduled tasks, but again this isn't difficult to undertake

[lyngsie08]

Thanks for your answers. Good to read about your experience with SQL DB with more than 5 hosts. I will probably go with the Express edition after reading this, though have to investigate if the 1GB RAM limit on Express, could have an impact as well. I doubt it.