vCenter and SQL 2005 Express on same physical machine

[ggrube2]

I am new to the VMware environment and am a little concerned about my VMware infrastructure and design. I have 3 physical boxes hosting 15 virtual servers. I have a 4th server that hosts vCenter and the SQL database. I am wondering what my risks are by having both vCenter and SQL 2005 express installed on the same box? What does VMware suggest as the best practice concerning this setup? If this setup is ok ,what are my options to protect myself in the event the box with vCenter and the SQL database dies? Thank you

[AWo]

VMware sets a restriction to 5 hosts and 50 guests wen you use SQL Express. I have it running with 6 hosts and 48 guests (incl. templates) on the same machine as the vcenter server. That is not what I want to keep and we'll change it to a SQL 2005 Standard on a separate SQL server (as we had it with SQL 2000 and VI3 before).

But I didn't have a single problem with this configuration, yet.

Having both on the same server can lead to a conflict: SQL 2005 requires IIS but vCenter uses the ports. So I have it installed but disabled.

I also believe that separating both runs faster than having it all on the same box.

AWo

VCP / vEXPERT 2009

[ggrube2]

Thank you for the helpful hints. I guess my next question is what is my exposure to having both vCenter and SQL Express on the same box? If I lose this server will my VM's still be able to funtion? If not should I be using a soulution like DoubleTake to replicate this data to a different server?

[Ajay_Nabh]

Hi

we have 11 hosts and over 70 VMs and So far I have no issues with Sql Express but I do not recommend sql express for large environments for so many reasons.

cheers

[malaysiavm]

I had been using the vcenter server with SQL 2005 Standard edition on it for more than 2 years now, and it is perfectly working fine. If you are using express edition, I think most of the point guys here had provided the information. additional to that, I will suggest you to include the management tools for standard SQL to further manage the express sql database in the future.

Craig

vExpert 2009

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[ggrube2]

Thank you for the helpful hints. I guess my next question is what is my exposure to having both vCenter and SQL Express on the same box? If I lose this server will my VM's still be able to funtion? If not should I be using a soulution like DoubleTake to replicate this data to a different server?

[Ajay_Nabh]

I Stand to be corrected!! if you loose Vcentre all you loose is ability to vmotion, HA, DRS etc. your VM should just work fine but vmotion etc will not kick in. I would recommend to keep backup of your DB or if this Vcentre is physical machine take image backup. if you have big environment then you can use existing SQL server which will have proper backup etc.

cheers

[ggrube2]

Thank you for the helpful hints. I guess my next question is what is my exposure to having both vCenter and SQL Express on the same box? If I lose this server will my VM's still be able to funtion? If not should I be using a soulution like DoubleTake to replicate this data to a different server?