on 02-04-2008 4:06 PM
When discussing possible server consolidation scenarios the following question arose:
Is it possible and supported to use one database server for several SAP instances?
E.g. One instance of SQL Server holds four databases for "dev" + "test" + "sandbox1" + "sandbox2"
and four servers (three of them virtual servers in VMware ESX) access this shared DB server to access their databases.
The idea is to have one heavyweight DB server accessing SAN and running the DB load of several non productive SAP instances. One would have to pay only one SQLServer license...
Kind regards, Rudi
Yes, is possible to share dedicated DB server among several SAP instances.
regards,
Wojtek
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Rudi,
I have tried this before and it works. You can either have one instance with one or more database or have one instance for each database. I recommend having separate instances so that you can start and stop the sql server independently of the other sap system but again this comes with the over head of maintaining separate instances.
Good luck!
-RT
Rudi,
You could have multiple instances on a single DB but as was pointed out, from maintenance point of view it is a no no. I have a customer with lot of SAP products, multiple releases and n+1 configuration. Even though there are lot of instances / databases to take care, they were advised to go against multiple instances on a single DB.
thanks
BMG
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The motivation behind my question is:
Is the money saved by using one SQLServer instance for several SAP instances good money?
Or are the drawbacks making more problems than the money?
Or in other words:
Is sharing SQLServer a really feasible consolidation scenario for dev, test and sandbox instances?
Looking forward to more replies,
Rudi
Hi Dan,
The advantages of multiple instances/one database each are:
- Each instance can be stopped and started independently. This allows you to have downtime on one system without impacting another.
- Each instance can be patched separately. (This can also be viewed as a disadvantage from an admin overhead point of view)
- MS SQL memory parameters (min. server memory/max. server memory) are configued at the instance level therefore you can better configure these parameters to meet the specific requirements of the database e.g. R/3, BI, EP. The alternative is one memory setting for all DB types.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Rudi,
A use case from our site is our SAP Sandbox server (HPDL385 16GB RAM). This is currently runninng 5 SAP systems (R/3, BI, EP, SRM and Cronacle Job Scheduler on JAVA stack) on 5 instances of MS SQL 2005 x64 and is working well.
Due to separate instance approach we can stop/start/patch/configure each environment separately.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Rudi,
Yes, with MS SQL 2005 only one license. This is a useful MS SQL Licensing FAQ - http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/faq.mspx.
In our case our MS SQL is licensed via SAP as a % of our annual maintenance fees. This is an alternative option.
Thanks,
Chris
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