MS has published the versions of Windows and the supported upgrade paths. Here’s my take.
x64
I have been at a client all week implementing a SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition SP3 cluster using Windows Server 2008 R2 for the underlying operating system. Since this is W2K8 R2, it’s 64-bit only, so we implemented SQL Server 2005 x64. Everything went pretty smoothly, as did the cutover from their current production box. However, we did notice one weird issue: we couldn’t configure a Maintenance Plan (I’m not a… Read More
I’ve been talking about it for awhile, but it’s finally here – my update of the old SQL Server 2000 consolidation whitepaper. It just went live less than an hour ago. The basic info including the link to the download of the Word document can be found here:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee692366.aspx or you can just download the Word doc from http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/B/D/DBDE7972-1EB9-470A-BA18-58849DB3EB3B/SQLServer2008Consolidation.docx. I hope you find it useful!
I know many of you are still entrenched in Windows Server 2003-land, but it's important to point out that Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta was made available through MSDN and TechNet this week. While R2 is not due out for awhile as RTM, what makes it noteworthy is not any of the improvements to things like failover clustering, but the fact that it is the first release of a Windows… Read More
SQLHA Experts Tip #8
Testing is one of the cornerstones for ensuring success in production, including both performance and availability. DBAs and IT are responsible for testing things like updates in non-production environments prior to rollout as well as ensuring disaster recovery plans work. What you do not know can and will work against you.
