Posted by Greg D. Moore \(Strider\) on 04/14/06 06:28

"IanIpp" <ian.ippolito@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1144982206.357046.119080@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> We have a 3 month old quad processor/dual core server running SQL
> Server 2005 and already it is getting close to hitting the CPU wall.
> An 8 way CPU box is prohibitively expensive and out of the question. I
>
> am looking desperately for a way to TRULY scale out SQL server...in the
>
> same way that IIS can be scaled out via App Center.
>

Well the first thing I would say is make damn sure it's not a code issue.

To relate a story, we had two boxes maxing out and were ready to buy a 3rd
in order handle the load.

After reading a white paper on performance tuning, I was able to work with
our developers to rewrite a single stored procedure and get to the point
where ONE box was handling the entire load and still had room to scale.

Ok, that's an extreme case (the boxes were basically doing only the one
thing) but it can show how much a difference simple tuning can make.

Ok, assuming that you've done that, if you can break any of the stuff into
read-only queries, one thing that might work is setup the current server as
a "publishing" server and use replication to push the data to "read-only"
servers.



> The "in the box" solution for SQL Server 2005 scaling out is the DMV.

DMV, I'm not familiar with that acronym.

> Unfortunately this solution makes the system less available rather than
> more (one server outage takes them all out for that table) and requires
> serious rearchitecting of the software to use. Contrast this to IIS
> and AppCenter where each added server makes the system more available,
> and requires no rearchitecting to work.
>
> Before someone says "what you want can't be done in a
> database"...Oracle has an application server middleware product that
> lets you do both of the above. Just plug a new server with Oracle on
> it, and you've doubled your capacity. But SQL Server 2005 doesn't yet
> have a similar capability.
>
> So I read with great interest the following article that talks about
> why this is the case with SQL Server. There are two issues that make
> it very difficult to do:
> http://www.sql-server-performance.com/js_ultimate_scalability_availab...
>
>
> You can create a crude pool using replication, but the performance
> times look horrendous.

Not necessarily. We do fine with it.

>
> However, the article also talks about the latest developments in this
> field...specifically MIDDLEWARE that can create a scale out solution
> that is more available and that requires simply adding new servers to
> scale up.
>
> I found two companies which seem to offer this new capability:
> http://www.metaverse.cc/newsevents.asp?cid=17999
> and
> http://www.pcticorp.com/product.aspx
>
> Both companies appear to have patents or a patent pending on the
> process. I tried to contact metaverse but got no reply, despite their
> recent press release. I just emailed Pcticorp today to see if I could
> learn more about their product.
>
> My question for this group is:
> Does anyone have experience with either of the two products (or any
> others that provide this capability)?
>

That I can't say much on. Sorry.


> Many thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Ian Ippolito
> http://www.rentacoder.com
>

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