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Clustering VS Standalone

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albertkohl
Aged Yak Warrior

740 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:01:08

Okay, so currently i have 4 Server2003 boxes set up. 3 of the 4 all have the same hardware, the 4th is a newever server, that sports 64x processors. currently, the way i have things set up, i have the database on all 4 server, none of them are linked, they are all basically independent of each other. the database i an running quries on is about 220 million records strong, and about 200 fields wide.

My question is this, would i be better off setting up a server-cluster, instead of having 4 independent machines? if i do, does the server load-balance, or does it just kinda do a pecking-order?

i wanna kinda figure out the pros and cons before looking into it further.

Thanks!

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:10:20

Clustering does not load balance. You achieve some load balancing in SQL Server via partitioning, specifically partitioned views federated across SQL instances.

You should not cluster the 4 servers together if one of the servers's hardware is different. For cluster stability, the servers should be identical.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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albertkohl
Aged Yak Warrior

740 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:22:56

so if i got 4-boxes, you think i should do patitioning? that's the type of partitioning that the Database Engine Tuning Advisor recommends right? can you point me in a direction about federating it accross sql instances? any other recommendations to loadbalance and get squeeze some more performance out of it? right know the 64x server has (8) 150gb 10krpm drivers and some quries are still taking 20min to finish.

Thanks in advace Tara, your always helpful (and everyone else)

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:25:59

I haven't a clue if that's what the DTA advises as I don't use that tool. It recommends some useless stuff sometimes.

You can read up on partitioned views in SQL Server Books Online.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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albertkohl
Aged Yak Warrior

740 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:29:04

how about the federated accross sql instances part? any direction on that?

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:30:35

It's all explained in SQL Server Books Online. Basically though you can have the partitions be on separate SQL Server instances (and separate hardware). You bring all of the partitions together via a view which allows the application to see just one object rather than the many partitions you might have.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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albertkohl
Aged Yak Warrior

740 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:33:55

my head hurts already :p thanks!

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:37:14

Partitioning and clustering are advanced topics. Make sure you are well versed in those subjects before implementing anything.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

Subscribe to my blog

albertkohl
Aged Yak Warrior

740 Posts

Posted - 2008-10-08 : 18:39:19

well lucky for me, the other 3 servers are about phased out now, so it'll give me a nice sandbox to play in while i break things :p

Thank you very much for your time.

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