Virtualized SQL Server: Why not?

Question

The IT department where I work is trying to move to 100% virtualized servers, with all the data stored on a SAN. They haven\'t done it yet, but the plan eventually calls for mo

Answer 1

Note there are some specialty virtualization products out there that are made for databases that might be worth looking into instead of a general product like VMWare.

Our company (over 200 SQL servers) is currently in the process of deploying HP Polyserve on some of our servers:

HP PolyServe Software for Microsoft SQL Server enables multiple Microsoft SQL Server instances to be consolidated onto substantially fewer servers and centralized SAN storage. HP PolyServe's unique "shared data" architecture delivers enterprise class availability and virtualization-like flexibility in a utility platform.

Our primary reason for deploying it is to make hardware replacement easier: add the new box to the "matrix", shuffle around where each SQL instance resides (seamlessly), then remove the old box. Transparent to the application teams, because the SQL instance names don't change.