Re: Default or named instances??

Most SQL documentation on named instances ignores the existance of clusters. Come to think of it, a lot of SQL documentation doesn't specify exceptons for clusters where they are clearly warranted, but that is another discussion.

When it comes to default and named instances on a cluster, you treat the cluster as you would a single system, that is you get a single default instance per cluster, nt per node. You can have any number of named instances on a cluster, bu Microsoft only supports 16 total instances on a single cluster. Basically, that is as far as they test so beyond there, you are on your own.

As for the relationship between a virtual server and an instance, this is always one-to-one. Each SQL Instance has its own virtual server. Each virtual server has its own disk(s), IP address, and Netowrk Name.

You can use DNS to alias a short name to a named instance, provided you have locked the port number to a known value on the named instance (this applies whether the instance is clustered or not).

--
Geoff N. Hiten
Senior Database Administrator
Microsoft SQL Server MVP


"Chris" <chris@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:%23K8xpT0hHHA.588@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am a little confused on the term "SQL instances" because I found conflicting documentation on the subject.

The question is, can I install 4 "instances" of SQL 2005 as "default" instances on a cluster in different resource groups each one having its own unique IP, "virtual sql name" and physical disks?

Before you answer have in mind that:
By "instance" I mean sql installation. When you start the sql installer its asking for the sql server name which its the "virtual SQL name", an IP address and what kind of "instance" you want to install, default or named.

I know that on a single server installation you can only have 1 default and like 50 named instances depending on what version you are installing. (the number is not important)

I also know that the client site can access the default instance by using just the server name and a named instance by using the format servername\sqlinstancename.

If I cannot install 4 "default" instances on the cluster then what will the servername be in the format servername\sqlinstancename?


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