SQL Server 2012 Archives - Page 4 of 6

July 5, 2012

Windows Server 2012 Editions, Licensing, and a Big WSFC Change

Today, Microsoft announced the different editions that will ship for Windows Server 2012 when it is released. Guess we’re getting close to RTM (or so Mary Jo Foley says). There’s a bit of a change in what will be available which you should be aware of. We will have:

Foundation (OEM only, so not really something you can buy per se)
Essentials
Standard
Datacenter

You may notice one major edition has been eliminated: Enterprise. I find this pretty funny and ironic since SQL Server 2012 made the opposite decision – axe Datacenter and just keep Enterprise. Looks like the two marketing organizations didn’t have a pow-wow 🙂 Also of note is that Small Business Server is kaput as well, and apparently, not to return. That won’t make some happy.

Licensing wise, this also changes the landscape a little. Here’s a quick comparison table with 2008 R2:

Edition	Windows Server 2008 R2 ERP (US $)	Windows Server 2012 ERP (US $)
Essentials	N/A	$425 (up to 25 users)
Standard	$1,029 (w/ 5 CALs)	$882 (Processor + CAL)
Enterprise	$3,919 (w/ 25 CALs)	N/A
Datacenter	$2,999 per processor (min. 2; unlimited virtualisation)	$4,809 (Processor + CAL; minimum of 2 processors; unlimited virtualization)

Here is the link to the Windows Server 2008/R2 licensing guide in PDF format and here is the link to its 2012 counterpart if you want to see things in gory detail. The biggest change is that things across the board seem to be going per-processor instead of, say, a single server license fee (no matter how may processors/cores you had).

From my perspective the most important change is this: Windows Server failover clustering (WSFC) is now included in Windows Server 2012 Standard (this is in that 2012 document I link previously). As of writing this blog post, I don’t know if Windows will limit the total number of nodes like SQL Server does with Standard edition and installing FCIs. I will update accordingly when I get a definitive answer. Stay tuned …

UPDATE 2:30PM Some of this change seems to be directly due to feedback from customers. The goal apparently was to simplify things and not make licensing the confusing mess it sometimes has been (my opinion on the confusing mess part, of course). While doing things per proc may anger some, it standardizes things across the board. Whether or not you agree with it is a total different story. With having the same feature sets and yes – including up to the maximum number of nodes in a WSFC allowed with NO restrictions – it really boils down to the best licensing scheme for your needs. The value prop is there regardless of which edition you choose. If you’re going to be doing a lot of virtualization, Datacenter is your ticket to paradise. That’s the biggest difference here. And really, what that translates to is if you’re not using VMs, you can probably go with Standard all the way. $882 per processor for four sockets is $3528, which is still cheaper than Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise.

BIG DISCLAIMER: I don’t play a licensing expert on TV or in real life. It can get complicated – especially if you’re, say, looking at a multi-site, multi-instance availability group scenario with SQL Server 2012. Your best bet to find out how this will impact you is to not only read the PDFs linked above, but talk to those who actually acquire licenses for your deployments.

June 28, 2012

Maintaining Quorum During Windows Patching and Updating

I’ve been working with a customer to deploy their new Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1-based failover cluster that will have bot SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 instances. One thing I always talk about in my classes as well as the presentations I focus on patching is this: you must maintain quorum during the patching and updating cycle. Quorum is one of the most important considerations in general for your clustered deployments (whether you’re implementing traditional failover clustering instances or availability groups), and it’s something that quite frankly, I find there’s a real lack of knowledge out there. It’s so important it’s most likely getting a whole chapter in my upcoming book Mission Critical SQL Server 2012.

I have talked to customers that have had SQL Server outages because their Windows guys when patching the underlying nodes for the Windows Server failover cluster (WSFC) rebooted too many at once, so there were not enough voters us, thus bringing the WSFC (and SQL) down when it wasn’t expected. This is NOT a scenario you want. While in theory it’s easy to control and keep track of when things reboot, this little gremlin in Figure 1 pops up after a little while reminding you it needs to be done:

Figure 1. Reboot needed warning

That’s all well and good, but the unskilled administrator who happens to see that message if they have to log onto the server may think nothing of it and just click Restart now. Yikes! The value of the reminder can be altered as shown in Figure 2, but you still need to worry about the reboot being done.

Figure 2. Changing the reminder value

There’s another dark underbelly I’ve seen these dialog boxes associated with: automatic updating of Windows via Windows Update. That is a much scarier situation because that means your servers could be updating 24×7 on their own, and some of those updates may even force reboots. Check your settings! I still see production servers at client sites that have automatic updating enabled. If they are, you need to have a serious discussion with your server admins as to why this is being done. Automatic updating is not in line with mission critical. Yes, it’s important to have a patch management strategy that keeps you up-to-date, but doing it smartly is the key. Not blindly.

June 1, 2012

Part 2: Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, and .NET Framework – PowerShell

I’ve written about this topic in the past (Post 1 and Post 2).To quickly recap, .NET Framework 3.51 is not enabled by default in Windows Server 2012. In Post 1, I showed how to enable the payload using DISM. This time around, I’m going to show you how to enable .NET 3.51 using PowerShell. Now that Windows Server 2012’s Release Candidate is out (You mean you haven’t downloaded and installed it yet? Get to it!), you can see what the experience will pretty much look like by RTM.

The process is nearly identical as DISM. If your server is connected to the internet, it appears that the PS cmdlet will first try to grab the payload from there. This particular VM I was doing my tests in was not connected to the Internet, so I saw what is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Failing to install the payload with no connectivity

If you know you’re not connected and need to use the installation media (or just have it handy), Figure 2 shows that process.

Figure 2. Installing the payload successfully from media

May 14, 2012

An Update: Windows Server 2012, .NET Framework 3.51, and SQL Server

Back in March, I wrote a blog post entitled “Windows Server 8, SQL Server 2012, and .NET Framework” where I talked about the various versions of .NET Framework as they relate to SQL Server 2012, and how I encounteded that .NET 3.51 was not available by default in WIndows Server 2012 (then known as Windows Server 8). I filed a bug against this and the official word is out: it’s not changing (my bug was closed as “By Design”). Microsoft published a blog post today on this very topic – .NET 3.51 will be a Feature On Demand. And why are they still using Windows 8 and not Windows Server 2012? Arg.

I think this decision is myopic and boneheaded, considering that SQL Server is one of the biggest deployment scenarios for Windows Server 2012 (regardless of what version or versions of SQL will ultimately be supported on it). This adds complexity to a base Windows installation for a Windows Server 2012-based deployment. Yes, it’s just another check on a list to ensure is done, but a pretty major one.

While I showed you how to get the payload from the installation media and the new blog post walks through other ways to get it, in my opinion, it’s an even stupider assumption to make that servers will have internet connectivity. Many mission critical servers when installed do not and will not. That means Windows Update (aka WU) is an impossibility for many. So you’re back to my method of getting it from the install media.

Don’t like it? I know I don’t. Make your voice heard. I have already tried the official route and was shot down, but I say there’s strength in numbers. Maybe if there’s enough outcry Microsoft will change this by RTM … but don’t look for me to turn blue holding my breath.

EDIT: Here is a link to a Connect item. Please add your comments about your scenario and how it will affect you. Don’t just do a +1.

May 4, 2012

The Importance of Connect Item 636516

Happy Friday everyone! This one is a quick blog post. There’s an Microsoft Connect item out there – 636516 to be exact – that you guys should go vote for. What is it and why should you care? Read on …

With the new AlwaysOn availability groups feature in SQL Server 2012, we can have readable replicas that will give folks near-real time access to data. This is a big step forward from where we are with solutions like log shipping and database mirroring which have their issues in this arena. However, as it works in SQL Server 2012, if the connection to the primary read/write replica is lost, the readable replica is not usable until that connection is established again. It’s not the end of the world, but in reality, it should probably allow you to use that readable replica even in a disconnected state. That’s what 636516 is all about.

So if you want to be able to use your readable replica when it can’t connect to the primary read/write one, click on the link above and vote. What would help even more is if you added a comment with your use case scenario and how it would impact you. That will help them even more to decide whether or not this will be fixed in a future version of SQL Server.

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