New White Paper on Hyper-V and SQL Server Consolidation at Microsoft

A new white paper on how Microsoft IT is combining Hyper-V and SQL Server has just been published. This comes from a team that provides thousands of SQL Server instances for internal applications. It includes a lot of interesting new information, including results of specific tests they performed to evaluate their options. This is something that I first saw on an internal-only presentation a few weeks back and I’m glad they posted it publicly. 

Here’s are the topics covered in this 26-page white paper:

• Executive Overview
• Introduction
• Considerations for Consolidation and Virtualization
  • Identification of Underutilized Servers
  • Server temperature
  • Consolidation Approaches
  • Virtualization Platform: WSRM vs. Hyper-V
• Implementation of the SQL Utility
  • Service Offerings
  • Identification of Candidates for Migration
• Attributes of System Quality
  • Availability and Business Continuity
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Manageability
  • Performance
  • Predictability and Repeatability
  • Reliability
  • Scalability
  • Security
  • Monitoring
  • Supportability
• Conclusion

It also includes lots of interesting diagrams, including details on their specific hardward configuration. While not evident on the outline above, the white paper compares the options to use multiple instances of SQL without Hyper-V with having multiple virtual machines with single instances of SQL Server. Not only it looks at the different pros and cons, but also provides interesting performance information.

Download the white paper from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd557540.aspx

Filed under: Windows Server 2008, SQL Server, Storage, Hyper-V

Jose Barreto’s Blog : New White Paper on Hyper-V and SQL Server Consolidation at Microsoft

An old article from last year about an initiative to help with graphically intensive
applications. I have seen some forum posts that suggest this may be part of the longhorn-version
release of Citrix.

Excerpt:

As you may have heard, we have a project code-named Pictor. This project is derived
from work done with Boeing to improve the responsiveness of OpenGL three dimensional
drawing programs (CATIA). The Boeing/Citrix project (codenamed K2) was a large success
and proved not only that it was possible to greatly improve the performance, it actually
made sense to progress this software to a much wider audience.

I have my own history with what I would call graphics intensive applications. When
I was first working as a systems engineer reseller in Brisbane in 1997, our little
company was approached by a local engineering company. I believe they make custom
car parts and it was very interesting how they went about it. They were a fairly big
operation and very professional. Our salesman (as expected) over-promised what WinFrame
could do. The thoughts were that it should be possible to remote CAD images over ICA.
Somehow, I was supposed to get this working. It became pretty obvious that with no
amount of tweaking would it be possible to run decent CAD across ICA.

So, that was the common conclusion of most people between 1995 and now that it just
was not possible to do intensive graphics remoting. The exception being programs being
designed this way from ground up (like 3D games).

Now, a group a Citrix has proven it possible to remote existing applications without
change. It is not just a demo, it is a working system being used at Boeing. In this
case, the hype actually understates the possible reality.

The reason I’m writing this is to drum up some interest in Pictor. First, I want you
to know it exists. Second, I want you to tell everyone that you want it (if you want
it). If you stay silent, there is a good chance that Citrix will focus on other items
on the agenda.

If you prefer, leave me a comment and I’ll forward it to the relevant people.

If the project goes ahead in the near term, it will most likely be based out of Sydney,
Australia. I know one of the core developers and I’m sure he’d love to hear what you
have to say.

Project
Pictor at Jeff Muir

Excerpt:

Introduction

An effective design of user profiles can make a significant
difference in the performance and manageability of a MetaFrame Presentation Server
environment. Many of the issues commonly seen in large or complex MetaFrame Presentation
Server environments—including slow logon, loss of user settings, profile corruption,
and excessive administration effort–are often the result of sub-optimal user profile
designs. A solid design and implementation of user profiles can maintain the integrity
of user settings, eliminate issues requiring administrator intervention, and ensure
high-performance user logon.

This white paper will present Citrix’s best practices
for the design of user profiles in a MetaFrame Presentation Server environment.

Read
the full article at the Citrix Website