Deploying Data Center Virtualization

Microsoft® SQL Server® in a VMware® Environment on Dell™ PowerEdge™ Blades and Dell EqualLogic™ Storage

This white paper provides an overview for deploying SQL Server in a virtualized environment for VMware ESX 3.5 Update 4 (U4) running on the latest PowerEdge M610 and M710 blade servers and EqualLogic PS6000XV iSCSI storage arrays.

 

The goal of this white paper is to introduce the basic concepts behind running SQL Server in a virtualized environment. It includes discussions of the deployment process and sizing considerations for backend EqualLogic storage and servers in blade chassis. It also includes blade virtual machine (VM) creation and SQL Server sizing for online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads in a virtualized environment with VMware.

 

The tests detailed in this white paper reveal potential bottlenecks and provide best practices recommendations to mitigate the effects of these bottlenecks, including recommended VM and workload sizes supported on the blade server/storage combo.