Hello

I have a question that I hope someone can shed some light on. We are
currently running a dedicated Dell 2850 SQL server box with a single
database on it that has become very heavily used over the last year. What
we'd like to do is to add another server (rather than buying higher spec
hardware) to load balance the SQL database. I'm aware that I will need to
buy some shared storage (such as a Dell PV 220s) and connect the 2 servers
to this but will I be able to load balance the single database in this
situation so that half the traffic goes to one server and half to the other?
I've read a bit about clustering and would like to setup a cluster where
both nodes are accessing the same database and if one node fails, the otehr
will take over (albeit with a performance reduction of course).

Thanks for your help guys.

SQL Custering is a failover technlogy, not a load-balancing technology. The
situation you describe, two servers accessing and managing the same
database, is not possible with SQL Server 2000. Only one host node in a
cluster owns and manages a SQL Server. Should that host node fail, the
entire server goes over to another node.

You need to determine what is the limiting factor on your system (CPU,
memory, IO, Disk Capacity) and upgrade or replace your system accordingly.

Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP


"Kate Smith" <ksmith2000 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks for the reply Geoff. What i'm wondering then is what happens when you
reach the limits of hardware like I guess Microsoft do for their sites -
they must have multiple servers running?

Thanks again.



"Geoff N. Hiten" <sqlcraftsman (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

So far, the upper limits of hardware are well beyond what any decently
written application could use. Some applications lend themselves to
horizontal partitioning while others don't. You are running a good
dual-processor box and are only at the beginning of your upgrade journey.
You can go with many more processors, lots of memory, and superfast IO
subsystems. The real key is to understand what resources your system
consumes in what ratio so you can make intelligent decisions about your
hardware upgrades. I am pretty sure Dell has some tools available to help
size a SQL database server but you will still have to monitor your system
and gather some meaningful information.

Good luck,

Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP.


"Kate Smith" <ksmith2000 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

You are speaking of a federated server which incurs the need to write a bunch
of pieces to direct data.

"Geoff N. Hiten" wrote:

The first really big TCP number from Microsoft was on a federated server
configuration, but almost all the recent benchmarks are on single-box
systems. VERY BIG single-box systems. Federated database implementations
have very limited real-world applicability.

Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP


"Jeffrey K. Ericson" <JeffreyKEricson (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote in
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