Re: Default or named instances??

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Thanks for the response.
I will have to disagree with the analogy you gave though about treating the
cluster as a single system and that's exactly what I'm trying to resolve
here.

According to your explanation about the relationship between SQL instance
and virtual server I would change the analogy to say I could treat the
VIRTUAL SERVER as I would a single system.

In this case I could have 4 virtual servers and to my understanding that's
where the rule of "only one default instance" applies. One default instance
for each virtual server. This will answer my last question about the
clients.

The clients can connect to virtual servers name (default) and
virtualserversname\instance if I have more than one instance for that
virtual server.

To sum it up:
1 four node cluster.
4 Virtual SQL servers (default instance)

If we need more instances then virtual server1 for example can have the
first default instance and then the virtual server1\inst1 and virtual
server1/inst2 etc...

I'm I going crazy, or you get my point?

Thanks
Chris


"Geoff N. Hiten" <SQLCraftsman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23m8vyD1hHHA.4520@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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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