SQL Server, a great workload for Hyper-V?

People ask me what are good candidates for Virtualization, and can Hpyer-V really run those heavy workloads. I tell them, that with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, almost all workloads are candidates, and when you couple Hyper-V with the great management you get with System Center, you have a great infrastructure platform for virtualization.

Yesterday, Vipul Shah, a Senior Product Manager with the Virtualization Team, showed some proof to my statements when he guest posted on Virtualization Planet about how Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center is a great platform for running SQL Server consolidated workloads. He pointed to a newly released video by Ted Kummert, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Business Platform Division that outlines how virtualization enables consolidation.

This is exciting as we ran some performance tests against a complex stock trading application using a machine with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) and saw good performance throughout the tests. We recently discussed in the Best Practices for SQL Server Virtualization webcast (click here) and in the SQL Server Consolidation Guidance (click here) the results of those tests, and guidance on running SQL as a virtual machine.

Other Business Critical Applications like Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint are also fantastic workloads to be consolidated.

It is good to see this information getting out there. Thoughts?

Kenon

Massive iSCSI IOPs for Hyper-V

Suzanne Morgan, a Senior Program Manager – Storage and File Systems at Microsoft is presenting a webcast today at 11 PST on some fantastic iSCSI performance numbers (Check out this blog for information on the webcast).

I don’t want to steal all the thunder from this webcast, but would like to share with you some exciting information. The webcast talks about both Windows Server 2008 R2 iSCSI performance numbers, but also Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V performance numbers.

What this graphic shows is that with Hyper-V using Intel VMDq and Microsoft VMQ, we are achieving 750,000+ IOPs, and achieve native throughput at 8k and above block sizes.

What does this mean? Well, if you are going to run, say, Microsoft Exchange in a VM hosted on iSCSI storage, you will be able to handle a tremendous amount of mailboxes even under a “heavy” profile.

Take a listen to the webcast and see where Windows Server 2008 R2 has gotten to.