Organizations running SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 face a critical milestone in July 2019 with Microsoft’s End of Support (EOS). Continuing to run EOS databases increases security risks – no more security patches from Microsoft – and may not conform to regulatory requirements.
Yet migration is a complex task. Companies need solutions that can migrate while consolidating those SQL Server 2008[1] workloads, so they can continue and scale with better cost efficiencies.
NVMe and SQL Server
NVMe is the next gamechanger for IT and especially SQL Server, with its focus on delivering high-performance storage with low-latency. NVM Express® or NVMe, is an industry standard protocol designed from the ground up to fully exploit the capabilities of non-volatile memory technologies (i.e., flash).
SQL Server benefits when used with NVMe because the extreme performance and low latency translates into more order processing and data analysis. It also enables higher workload consolidation and ultimately, greater cost savings. Let’s drill down on that.
New Solutions Bring the Power of NVMe to SQL Server Migration
DataON, a Western Digital customer and partner, delivers Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) solutions built to optimize the full stack of Windows Server Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC). This week at Microsoft Ignite, in booth # 221, DataON will showcase new solutions for hosting SQL Server 2008 workloads, powered by Western Digital NVMe SSDs and platforms.
The solutions, jointly developed by DataON, DB Best and Western Digital, demonstrate a cost-effective, modern hardware and software solution for hosting SQL Server 2008 workloads on-premises, using Windows Server® 2016, Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct.
One of the solutions you can see in the DataON booth shows:
- Up to eighty SQL Server 2017 OLTP workloads (representing migrated SQL Server 2008 OLTP workloads)
- Running on a 4-server Storage Spaces Direct hyperconverged cluster
- Using just six Western Digital Ultrastar®SN200 NVMe SSDs
The high performance of the Ultrastar SN200 NVMe SSDs lets each workload use less system memory, just 10GB, allowing more workloads to run on each server.
This DataON™ system is based on the Western Digital Ultrastar Serv24 storage server platform, purpose-built for software defines storage solutions using high-performance storage like this DataON system.
Migrate SQL Server 2008 workloads to a modern, on-premises HCI environment
The white paper “Cost Effective Workload Consolidation using the DataON™ Windows Server HCI Platform” details how the DataON system, combining the Ultrastar Serv24 platform and Ultrastar SN200 NVMe SSDs, delivers both high workload density, with higher workload performance than the original SQL Server 2008 workloads delivered. The paper includes all testing results and a detailed Bill of Materials showing hardware and software costs, and the resulting cost per workload.
See this system in action in DataON booth # 221 at Ignite 2018.
Learn more
The system testing reported in the whitepaper was performed by Adi Cohen of DB Best Technologies, in collaboration with DataON and Western Digital.
[1] For brevity, “SQL Server 2008” refers to both the SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 releases.