Educational Episodes: Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)

In my previous article, I measured SQL Server Basic Availability Groups (BAG) performance. This, as it comes from the name, addresses SQL Cluster Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) performance. I expect SQL Server FCI to exhibit two times higher performance than BAG. Before I start, I’d like to tell you one important thing about this measurement. SQL Server FCI database resides on a StarWind virtual device. Why did I choose StarWind? Because I got their NFR license some time ago and decided to give this software-defined storage solution a shot. Let’s just hope that it won’t limit SQL Server FCI performance.

Veeam announced the next update of its backup app – Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5u4. It has an opportunity to create a Scale-Out Backup Repository (SOBR) with local and cloud extents. And one more benefit: SOBR can include two tiers. It’s not fiction. Create a performance tier and capacity tier such as a storage account in Microsoft Azure with SOBR!

Some time ago, while looking through what SQL server Basic Availability Groups (BAG) can do, I found an awesome article by Pieter Vanhove: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msftpietervanhove/2017/03/14/top-5-questions-about-basic-availability-groups/. There was nothing about performance, though, so I thought: “Hey, why not write an article about BAG performance?” Later, I realized that you need to compare this performance to something else, right? So, I decided to add SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) performance measurements. Maybe, I’ll add some SQL Server Availability Groups (AG) measurements at the end; but, let’s see first whether SQL Server FCI can run twice as fast as SQL Server BAG. In this study, I measured BAG performance alone. Now, as we know the scope of the article, let’s move on!

This post will be pretty handy for those who rely on their memory too much because it discusses how to reset vCenter Server Appliance root password.

Whether you’re new to the idea of a CI/CD pipeline or have tried this development practice before and are simply looking for ways to optimize the process, this article is for you.

In this post, I am going to take a closer look at the impact of read-only routing on SQL Server Availability Groups performance. I measured SQL Server Availability Groups (AG) performance before (https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/hyper-v/can-sql-server-failover-cluster-instance-run-s2d-twice-fast-sql-server-availability-groups-storage-spaces-part-1-studying-ag-performance/). And, a guy from Reddit  recommended enabling read-only routing to achieve higher performance (find more about this policy here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/availability-groups/windows/configure-read-only-routing-for-an-availability-group-sql-server?view=sql-server-2017). Thanks for your comment, man! I highly appreciate your efforts. This article will shed light on how read-only routing affects SQL Server AG performance.

Microsoft released in February 2019 a new service called Azure Lab service. With Azure Lab Services, you can easily set up and provide on-demand access to preconfigured virtual machines. Thanks to a dashboard, you can also keep your budget in check by controlling exactly how many hours your lab users can use the virtual machines.

Some time ago, discussing how cool VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 1 is, I briefly mentioned content libraries. That article was just an overview, so I decided not to go into details, saying that some features need their own posts. In today’s article, I’d like to share my hands-on experience with content libraries and help you to decide whether this feature can make your life any easier.

Admins shut down their hosts for servicing from time to time. After closing for maintenance one node, vSAN cluster resources are to be re-distributed, and here Maintenance Mode comes into play. Today, I’d like to discuss the whole idea of maintenance mode and its options.