Database Reference
In-Depth Information
machine. How vSphere monitors applications running inside the guest operating system
will be covered in the next section.
vSphere App HA
vSphere App HA allows for the monitoring of applications running inside virtual
machines. vSphere App HA allows an administrator to monitor the location and status
of these applications, define remediation actions to take place if a service
(sqlserve.exe, for example) becomes disabled, and generate alerts and notifications that
a monitored service has been impacted. As of the writing of this chapter, vSphere App
HA supports SQL Server 2005 through 2012. To learn more or to check for updated
information, check
http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/features-application-HA
.
We have worked with a lot of customers who have reevaluated their existing SQL
Server clusters to determine which SQL Server databases could run on a standalone
SQL Server running on the vSphere platform. There are valid reasons to move and not
to move SQL Server databases off a clustered instance, but customers have used
vSphere HA and vSphere App HA to drive complexity and cost out of their
infrastructure while maintaining and improving the availability of their SQL Server
databases.
vSphere Data Protection
vSphere Data Protection (vDP) is an appliance-based backup and recovery solution
developed by VMware for your virtual infrastructure. vDP provides deduplication of
data across all virtual machines running against the same vDP appliance and utilizes
Changed Block Tracking for both backup and restore operations. vDP can perform file-
level or virtual machine-level restores.
For some of your virtual infrastructure, vSphere Data Protection will meet your
requirements. There is also another version called vSphere Data Protection Advanced
that brings additional capabilities to the table. Because we are discussing SQL Server
virtualization, it is worth mentioning that vDP Advanced provides application-aware
agents. For SQL Server, this provides the ability to perform granular backup and
restores of individual databases and/or logs. Oh, and as an added bonus, it can be used
to back up your physical SQL Servers as well. For more information on vSphere Data
Protection and vSphere Data Protection Advanced, go to
vSphere Replication
VMware's vSphere Replication is a hypervisor-integrated replication engine. vSphere
Replication is integrated into the kernel of the ESXi hypervisor. vSphere Replication
enables the protection of virtual machines by replicating them from one ESXi host to
