Re: sql clustering vs load balancing

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From: Mike Epprecht \(SQL MVP\) (mike_at_epprecht.net)
Date: 01/06/05 

Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 01:01:12 +0100

Hi

Have you looked at how much overhead replication detracts from your
performance?
It might be causing all the trouble. All forms of replication need to write
away that something changed, so under heavy loads, every update can result
in an extra 1 read and write for replication alone on the server.

Clustering Actice/Active is not load balancing, it means an instance of SQL
Server runs on each node, serving up different databases.

Performance problems, check that your drives are configured correctly. Logs
on a Stripe and Mirror (RAID-10), Data on RAID-10 (an at a push, RAID-5),
backups on another RAID-10 set.

Regards
--------------------------------
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland

IM: mike@epprecht.net

MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/

"bribonfi" <bribonfi@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:DD565850-04D3-462F-9540-4F390C382CEA@microsoft.com...
> thanks mike,
>
> currently we run 3 sql servers pe2650's and I replicate data between them,
> and the are load balanced using a microsoft load balance cluster. these
> machines also host our web sites. the problem is we get slow performance
> sometimes when handling incoming transactions. I just recently purchased
> those 6650's and i am having trouble figuring out the best way to
configure
> these two new machines. At first i was thinking i would have one dedicated
to
> incoming transactiona and one to outgoint(reads). I strayed from this
becuase
> it would require chages to our application. Now i am leaning towards
> configuring each machine separatley, replicating the database and then
using
> a load balance cluster for just these two machines, which would create a
> sigle ip address for my database servers. a sort of round robin effect.
Now
> i am looking into using a 2 node cluster active/active or active/passive.
But
> i have questions.
>
> with your active/active how does it work. Is there a performance increase.
> do you access each server as if there were separete servers. how do they
> replicate.
>
> thanks in advance for all you help
>
>
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" wrote:
>
> > Hi
> >
> > You can not load balance SQL Server (unless you add some very
intelligent
> > code in your application that can handle replication)
> >
> > We run massive trading systems against 2 node active-active Microsoft
> > Clusters, and we are very happy. If you have badly coded apps, it is
going
> > to push your hardware to the limit.
> >
> > Clustering is for High Availability.
> >
> > Look at
> >
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/clustering/default.mspx
> >
> > Regards
> > --------------------------------
> > Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> > Zurich, Switzerland
> >
> > IM: mike@epprecht.net
> >
> > MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> >
> > Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> >
> > "bribonfi" <bribonfi@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:60B6F1F0-567C-4EAB-AC3E-220759DADC57@microsoft.com...
> > > I have a web application that takes in thousands of financial
transactinos
> > a
> > > day, as well as displays all this financial data. I just purchased two
> > dell
> > > pe6650 with quad 3.0 xeons, and 12 gigs of ram a piece. Would I
benifit
> > from
> > > configuring these servers into a cluster or would it be more efficient
to
> > > confiure them seperatly and jusl load balance them.
> > >
> > > thanks,
> > > Brian
> >
> >
> >

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