The past couple of years has seen a great increase in the interest of server consolidation and virtualization. Once considered an almost impossible to achieve ideal, today more and more companies are taking a serious look at its benefits. And those benefits are quite alluring.
I have talked with colleagues who swear by virtualization. They claim that when properly configured, SQL Server can perform every bit as well on a virtual server as when on a dedicated box. So for them, the benefits greatly outweigh any potential drawbacks.
Although I don't have a great deal of experience with server virtualization, I do make quite extensive use of desktop virtualization. In fact, my laptop does not have a single piece of SQL Server or .NET related software installed it. Everything that I do professionally, I do in a virtualized environment.
A recent request from a long time client further highlighted the benefits of desktop virtualization. The client uses a ten year old VB6.0 / Crystal Reports 8.0 application that I support. The application has been quite stable and has met their needs for some time now and as a result I haven't used VB6.0 nor CR8.0 is years. However the client recently identified some relatively minor enhancements that would improve the application. Without desktop virtualization, creating the development environment would have been rather difficult. I wouldn't have had these older tools on my laptop already and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to install an older set of tools on top of a newer version.
But with virtualization, no problem. I can simply copy an existing virtual machine and install the required software. Existing virtual machines would not be affected. In this case I already had a virtual machine configured for this scenario, but if a hadn't it would have been easy to create.
I have six or seven different virtual machines configured for different purposes. For example, I have a virtual machine with each of the following configurations and uses.
- SQL Server 2005 / Visual Studio 2005 - This is my primary development machine that I use for most of my clients.
- SQL Server 2000 / Visual Studio 2000 - Some clients still use an older set of technologies, so I have a machine configured with that set of software.
- SQL Server 2000 / Visual Basic 6.0 - A few of my clients still use VB6.0 applications that I created for them years ago, so I have a virtual machine configured for this purpose.
- SQL Server 2008 - When I speak at conferences and user group meetings, I like having a dedicated environment that I can quickly configure without affecting my production environments.
- SQL Server 2005 / SQL Server 2008 - I used the system to test upgrade paths when writing some technical documentation for a recent project.
- Base O/S install - I use this as a the basis for new virtual machines that I create. It only has a fully patched operating system installed on it.
The beauty of this layout is that I can easily copy an existing virtual machine for a new purpose as need be. This provides me with a pristine environment in which to work.
If you're using desktop virtualization, I'd like to hear about your experiences. Drop me a comment below. If you're not already using desktop virtualization, I'd highly recommend it.
Cheers!
Joe
