Server Consolidation

Executive Summary

The amount of deployed instances of Microsoft SQL Server in the enterprise is on the rise as a database management system. Microsoft set out to provide an effective database management system that meets multiple goals for information technology organizations. SQL Server, a Microsoft product, is designed to deliver scalable solutions while offering ease of use and deployment, self maintenance and tuning, low resource overhead, and low administrator skill set requirements. The seeming rise in popularity of SQL Server has resulted in an upsurge of installations in the corporate environment. This trend is frequently described as server sprawl. In some instances, this has led to uncoordinated installations, wasted hardware and licenses, lack of standards in an enterprise, and security holes. These problems can be mitigated by server consolidation. Consolidation is the combination of SQL Server databases running on different systems that are usually geographically dispersed, onto a smaller number of more powerful systems in a central location. The result is greater performance and reliability as well as an easing of administration duties.

Principle Reference

Allix, Geoff and Malcolm, Graeme (August, 2007, Updated January 2008) "Server Consolidation with SQL Server 2008" [Electronic Version] , Microsoft.com, Retrieved February 18th, 2008 from http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/c/d/acd8e043-d69b-4f09-bc9e-4168b65aaa71/SQL2008SrvConsol.doc

DBMS Server Consolidation

As organizations use ever increasing numbers of applications to manage business processes, provide new services, and gain an insight into business performance, the number of application servers and data storage servers that are required to support those applications has grown significantly. In many organizations, the hardware costs and the overhead of deploying and maintaining multiple servers throughout the enterprise is a major financial and logistical burden. (Allix/Malcom)

In a perfect world consolidating all SQL Server instances would be a simple task. However, in the real world, consolidation requires careful planning and consideration. When consolidating servers, you should expect politics to be a factor. Quite often, departments are reluctant to turn over management of their databases to another group. Sometimes, these concerns stem from territorial disagreements. More frequently the concern is that the SQL Server databases will no longer have the benefit of the level of support that users are accustomed to once the servers acquire new owners. Managers must take care to ensure that the consolidated solution will offer better support than what they are currently receiving in house, and it is essential that a Service Level Agreement is established so that expectations are fully understood by the user department and the new server owner.