Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Summary
In this chapter, we focused on the hypervisor and the underlying virtual machines. We
discussed the computing paradigm before virtualization, one we described as a one-to-
one relationship where we would purchase one physical server for each critical
application.
The new computing paradigm of virtualization is a one-to-many relationship, where a
single physical server will now have many applications residing on it, thus improving
overall utilization rates but still offering the same level of service. In the virtual world,
your SQL Server database will be in a shared resource, which means it's important to
work with the storage administrator and vSphere administrator to accurately
communicate your requirements. It's also important to size the virtual machine that
houses your database properly; hoarding or oversizing resource in a shared environment
hurts everyone.
We discussed the different type of hypervisors, and the difference between full
virtualization and paravirtualization. We stress the fact that vSphere ESXi uses full
virtualization and does not alter the operating stack in any way, which means your
database will operate in the same way it does on physical hardware. We also discussed
a common paravirtual driver that I/O-intensive workloads such as a SQL Server
database will benefit from.
We ended with an illustration that highlights the major difference with the many
different versions of VMware ESXi. We stressed that the latest versions were built
specifically to handle the demands of a complex workload such as Microsoft SQL
Server. No other hypervisor on the market today has the proven track record of
VMware, nor the ability to scale up; it is ready for the most demanding SQL Server
databases today.
