One of the most important aspects of SQL performance is TempDB. Applications can use TempDB as a scratch space, and in most cases you should not rely on just a single TempDB file. If the number of vCPUs is less than 8, then configure an equal number of TempDB files...
 We've now come to the point where we need to install and configure the Windows cluster role. Even though SQL AAGs don't use shared disks like a traditional failover cluster, AAGs do rely on the Windows cluster service. We will also be implementing the Cluster Aware updating feature. This is...
In this fifth installment of the SQL 2015 AAG series, we do an unattended installation of Node B, using a modified INI file produced from our Node A installation. This streamlines the installation process, reduces human error, and makes your installation repeatable. This will probably be the shortest installment, since...
VMware has just published a KB article (KB 2086946) Â on using Microsoft failover clustering services to support high availability of vCenter 5.5 U2. My assumption for this support is the demise of the vCenter Heartbeat product. I appreciate VMware giving customers a new choice for vCenter high availability. Slightly buried...
This is Part 4 of the SQL Always-on Availability Group installation, where we finally get to install the SQL Server database engine and related tools. This first SQL installation will be a fully manual process where we walk through the GUI to get SQL installed. For our second node we will use...
This is Part 3 of the SQL 2014 Always-On Availability group series where we setup two service accounts and a security group. One account is for the database engine and the other is for the SQL agent. In order for Kerberos to work properly the database engine account must be Active Directory based. We will also...
Hot off the digital presses is vSphere 5.5 Update 2. This is a minor update, but with some important supported database updates. It's great to see SQL Server 2014 now supported. I'm in fact surprised they supported SQL 2014 so fast, so kudos to VMware. Now if we can only...
First up in this series is deploying your two Windows Server 2012 R2 VMs, which will be the SQL 2014Â Always-On availability group nodes. I have a standard VM template that is built in a nearly fully automated manner with Microsoft MDT 2012 Update 1. If you are still making your...
This series of posts will show you how to configure SQL 2014 on VMware vSphere 5.5 using SQL Always-On Availability Groups (AGs). Always-on Availability Groups is the 'next generation' in high availability technology that relies on application level data replication versus shared SCSI disks like traditional failover clustering. No more shared...
While I was at VMworld 2014 in San Francisco last week I got a lot of very positive feedback about my 20 part vSphere 5.5 install series and my vSphere toolkit script. I'm glad its helped so many people make their vSphere SSL life easier. Up until now my Toolkit...
So VMworld 2014 was my sixth VMworld, if I'm counting correctly and was in many respects the best one to date. It had two firsts for me:  my first VMworld as a VCDX and the first time attending as a VMware partner/vendor employee. VMworld 2013 was big for me, as encouraging comments by...
Session: INF1736 Jon Kohler (Nutanix), Josh Odgers (Nutanix), Matt Cowger (EMC), Scott Lowe (VMware), Jason Nash (Varrow) This was a very lively session with a panel of five VCDXs from a variety of companies. I was taking real time notes, so I didn't capture all of comments and some of...