How to install a new instance on an existing server?

[RRinTetons]

We just installed a NetApp filer and put SnapManager for SQL Server (SMSS) on our primary SQL server. It does a backup that was taking nearly 2 hours using a Maintenance Plan down to about 20 minutes using SMSS, including verification. If I turn off verification the backup takes about 2 minutes! Restores to confirm effectiveness are equally quick and automatically restore tran logs up to a point in time if so required.

I want to use SMSS to restore an existing database under a new name for testing purposes. Since it's a test db it doesn't require verification for either the source backup or the target restore. I do that now with a T-SQL backup, then restore over another db, a process that takes over three hours. SMSS won't do that. To accomplish this with SMSS I need to have a second instance of SQL Server 2005 on the same server and restore to it; it appears that doing it this way will cut the time down to a few minutes.

How do I go about adding a second instance of SQL Server to the existing server? I don't want to disturb the existing default instance unless absolutely necessary.

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Richard Ray
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

 

[JayKusch]

Just go ahead and run the SQL installer once more.

You will be asked to create a "Named Instance" since the default instance is already take by your first install.

You will then need to decided how to allocate the system resources between the two instances (more on a memory basis than anything).



Thanks

J. Kusch

 

[RRinTetons]

The machine has 4 GB of RAM, it's SQL Server Enterprise. As I understand it the default instance isn't using any more than 2 GB (although it could) unless I do a startup tweak of some sort to tell it to use more. Perfmon traces don't reveal any problem with the current instance needing any more memory, so I'm guessing I can be liberal with the new named instance for testing and development? Especially as it won't ever have more that a couple of users and won't ever be carrying production transaction loads?

The machine has 2 dual-core Opterons in it, so it thinks it's a 4-way machine. Do you have any thoughts on processor allocation?

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Richard Ray
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

 

[JayKusch]

OK ... 4GB machine (2GB to SQL 2GB to OS).

Here is the question: Have you kept the out of the box memory setting for SQL, that being 2GB?

With your 2nd instance you will need to set a dynamic allocation of 0 to 1GB (or 1GB fixed) or you could adversly affect your Prod instance "if" it were to try to allocate up to the max 2GB it will have set with the "out of the box setting".

As for procs, I would leave them as is. If you do see an issue you may want to isolate the 2nd instance to use only one or two procs and not all 4.

A lot of these suggestions are just that, suggestions. You will need to set the 2nd instance up and start monitoring to see what exactly is happening.



Thanks

J. Kusch

 

[RRinTetons]

The default instance is at the 'out of the box' setting. I'll allocate 1 GB fixed to the new instance and leave the procs as they are unless perfmon tells me differently.

Thanks for your assistance.

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Richard Ray
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort