Database Reference
In-Depth Information
workload. A byproduct of database virtualization is high workload resiliency.
When you break the bond between the physical server and your database, a whole new
computing paradigm opens up to you—
a world where your SQL server database has
access to any computing resource, any physical server, at any time.
Just as your cell
phone can travel from cell tower to cell tower as needed, your database can now travel
from physical server to physical server as needed, thus allowing you to leverage
resources in a way that was previously not possible. No longer do you have one
physical server sitting idle while another has more work than it can comfortably handle
without impacting database response times.
In this new paradigm, database availability becomes expected. The same as when you
get up in the middle of the night and turn on the light switch, it just works. What has to
happen to ensure the electricity is always available is handled by the utility company.
You don't think about how your electricity is generated or where it ever comes from.
The power company deals with the fact that your power comes from multiple locations,
and they deal with what it takes to make it always available. You just plug in your
appliance to the electrical outlet, and it works. When your SQL Server database is
virtualized, the infrastructure just works. As the DBA, your primary concern is no
longer the physical server your database is sitting on—just as when you hit the light
switch, you are not concerned with which physical electrical generation plant is
creating your electricity. It's a new computing paradigm that requires a new way of
thinking about the database, the resources, and the infrastructure the database is relying
on. A virtualized infrastructure is highly resilient. When outages happen, the virtualized
infrastructure is able to take care of things. Just as you no longer think about where your
electricity comes from, you will no longer worry about where your computing power
comes from.
Virtualization Turns Servers into Pools of Resources
Virtualization enables you to turn all the x86 physical servers in your data center into a
pool of resources the business can use as needed. Resources such as a database can
move freely among the servers in the pool (or cluster) as needed. What's more, you can
offload applications from one server to another as people are using them to free up
resources, or you can move an application such as a database onto a different server in
the pool as people are using it to give your database access to additional needed
resources.
No longer do you have a physical server dedicated to a particular purpose that cannot
be easily reprovisioned. In the virtual world, that pool of resources is available to be
used as the business sees fit. No longer is one physical server sitting at 90% CPU
utilization, with your users on the phone complaining how slow things are, while the
other three physical servers in the cluster are sitting at 10% CPU utilization, and you
