Possible to use MS SQL 2005 as VirtualCenter 2.0 backend?

[GeneralDzur]

Hello all,

I'm new to VirtualCenter 2.0 and ESX 3.0. I'm a little lost about a couple things:


My questions are:

1) When setting up VirtualCenter 2.0 (also to be used as an ESX 3.0
license server), can it utilize Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as its SQL backend?

2) What are the hardware requirments for the VC SQL box?
It will be a seperate physical box.


Setup would be:
ESX 3.0 boxes --> VirtualCenter 2.0 --> 2005 SQL backend?

- stephan

 

[jmd0252]

I am confused,, are you asking if you can load virtual center on box, running sql 2005??

 

[GeneralDzur]

No, I'm wondering what kind of box is required to run the database backend FOR VirtualCenter.

I.E. what are the hardware requirments? (For the database box). VirtualCenter uses a database to keep track of all the ESX PC's it's managing. We want to use MS SQL Server 2005 to run the database.

- stephan

 

[LarryTheCucumber]

Check this page.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vc11/doc/c2prepvcdb.html

It covers how to setup the VC database.

 

[paintballer]

According to the VI3 documentation, which includes VC 2.0 infomtaion, and can be found here "

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pubs.html"

VirtualCenter Database Requirements
VirtualCenter supports the following database formats:
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (SP 4 only)
Oracle 9iR2, 10gR1 (versions 10.1.0.3 and higher only), and 10gR2
Microsoft MSDE (not supported for production environments)

Each database requires some configuration adjustments in addition to the basic
installation.

That being said, I think you can get away with using 2005, but I would test it first. The server sizing is not detailed for the database backend, but I think that any server that falls under the guidlines by MS for SQL 2k5 would be fine. The requirements for standard can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/standard/sysreqs.mspx

I hope that answers your questions?
Thanks,
Paintballer

 

[GeneralDzur]

Paintballer,

Thanks, that answered my question. I think we're going to go with 2000 SP4 because it's officially supported.

- stephan