Active/Passes Instances on a Single Virtual Server

Hi all,
Does anyone know if it possible to have active/passive
instances of SQL on a single virtual server? I'm
thinking not but if anyone has any info it would be much
appreciated.
Cheers,
Dave.
Are you asking if you can have an Active / Passive (now referred to as
Multi-Instance) cluster on a single physical server? If so since Clustering
is a hardware fail over solution so it would be mostly pointless. With that
said I have seen people use VMWare to simulate multiple servers for testing
purposes but there is no reason you would want to do this in a production
scenario.
Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP
"Dave N" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6dab01c48388$6c39ba50$a601280a@.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
> Does anyone know if it possible to have active/passive
> instances of SQL on a single virtual server? I'm
> thinking not but if anyone has any info it would be much
> appreciated.
> Cheers,
> Dave.
|||I posted more out of curiosity to be honest. A colleague
asked if he could have a more than one SQL instance on a
single virtual server (i.e not create a new SQL instance
on a new virtual server on the same cluster). I'm not
talking at the hardware level no, at a SQL level. My
colleague states that you could then run the 2 SQL
instances in an active/passive mode. This would be in a
testing (dev) environment yes - purely theory work at the
minute.

>--Original Message--
>Are you asking if you can have an Active / Passive (now
referred to as
>Multi-Instance) cluster on a single physical server? If
so since Clustering
>is a hardware fail over solution so it would be mostly
pointless. With that
>said I have seen people use VMWare to simulate multiple
servers for testing
>purposes but there is no reason you would want to do
this in a production
>scenario.
>--
>Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP
>
>"Dave N" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message[vbcol=seagreen]
>news:6dab01c48388$6c39ba50$a601280a@.phx.gbl...
much
>
>.
>
|||Dave,
You can install SQL Server on a single-node cluster. However, each clustered
instance of SQL Server on that one machine must be installed with a new
virtual server name and IP.
Unless there's some subtlety I'm missing, I believe your colleague is wrong.
On a single node cluster, there is no other node of the cluster to fail over
to. In other words, the end result is Active, period, and no passive
whatsoever, because there's no second node. Or a better way to put it,
you're suggesting multi-instance SQL Server virtual servers on a single
node.
Also, as Andrew points out, there's no failover on a single-node cluster,
and so single-node clusters are normally meant only for testing and
learning.
Hope this helps,
Ron
Ron Talmage
SQL Server MVP
"Dave N" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6e9901c48398$6ac157e0$a401280a@.phx.gbl...[vbcol=seagreen]
> I posted more out of curiosity to be honest. A colleague
> asked if he could have a more than one SQL instance on a
> single virtual server (i.e not create a new SQL instance
> on a new virtual server on the same cluster). I'm not
> talking at the hardware level no, at a SQL level. My
> colleague states that you could then run the 2 SQL
> instances in an active/passive mode. This would be in a
> testing (dev) environment yes - purely theory work at the
> minute.
> referred to as
> so since Clustering
> pointless. With that
> servers for testing
> this in a production
> message
> much
|||Ron,
Thanks for this. I am Dave's colleague who originally
posed the question. This was derived from the principle
that if clustering fails over pre-defined (cluster-aware)
resources why not failover between resource defined on one
node only. Since Dave posted this I have acrried out some
more investigations and beleive the SQL setup wizard is
limiting the installation to select resources on diffrent
nodes. If indeed it cannot be done it would be nice to
know if this is a limitation of MSCS or SQL Setup.
NB Although there is a BOL entry headed 'How to install a
one-node failover cluster' it just install a single
instance that doens't failover.
Many thanks,
Tim
>--Original Message--
>Dave,
>You can install SQL Server on a single-node cluster.
However, each clustered
>instance of SQL Server on that one machine must be
installed with a new
>virtual server name and IP.
>Unless there's some subtlety I'm missing, I believe your
colleague is wrong.
>On a single node cluster, there is no other node of the
cluster to fail over
>to. In other words, the end result is Active, period, and
no passive
>whatsoever, because there's no second node. Or a better
way to put it,
>you're suggesting multi-instance SQL Server virtual
servers on a single
>node.
>Also, as Andrew points out, there's no failover on a
single-node cluster,
>and so single-node clusters are normally meant only for
testing and
>learning.
>Hope this helps,
>Ron
>--
>Ron Talmage
>SQL Server MVP
>
>"Dave N" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message[vbcol=seagreen]
>news:6e9901c48398$6ac157e0$a401280a@.phx.gbl...
colleague[vbcol=seagreen]
the[vbcol=seagreen]
If[vbcol=seagreen]
active/passive
>
>.
>
|||Tim,
I do not properly understand your statement. Can you please elaborate?
You wrote " SQL setup wizard is limiting the installation to select resources on diffrent nodes. If indeed it cannot be done it would be nice to know if this is a limitation of MSCS or SQL Setup."
Please give more detail. What type of resources you are talking about. AFAIK, in the SQL setup wizard the only resource that you select is the the shared disk resources. Yeah, if the disk resource you want to use is
being owned by another node then the setup cannot use it. This is not a limitation, its by design. Meaning Windows cluster uses the "shared nothing" topology where in only one node can own the disk.
You wrote "NB Although there is a BOL entry headed 'How to install a one-node failover cluster' it just install a single instance that doens't failover."
Thats true, you cannot failover because it is a single node cluster. Failover is between nodes and not on the same node.
BTW, if you have more than one shared disk on a single node cluster then you can have multiple virtual SQL Server 2000 (supported upto 16) -- each will require a seperate shared disk.
Additional Information:
====================
I highly recommend you to review the first two links to get an idea of what MSCS and SQL Failover Cluster is, what it can do and what it cannot do.
Windows Clustering: An Overview of Microsoft Clustering Technologies
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=325423
SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../failclus.mspx
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability Series
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...y/sqlhalp.mspx
Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Clustering
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb051001.asp
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Virtual Server: Things You Should Know
http://support.microsoft.com/default...lurb032602.asp
Best Regards,
Uttam Parui
Microsoft Corporation
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