SQL Server 2000 Consolidation: a business case

Team meetings should be held at regular and frequent intervals to further steady progress, and they
should leverage teleconferencing to support participation across geographic boundaries. Team
documentation, such as meetings notes, updated project plans and timelines, and server scope lists,
should be readily available to all team members via e-mail, SharePoint Portal sites, or network shares.
Over-arching management commitment, involvement, and budget are required at a level high enough
to make sure that the team has quick and appropriate access to people, hardware, and software, and
that it maintains the organizational focus needed to complete the consolidation project effectively and
on schedule.
Defining the scope for consolidation
Once the consolidation team is assembled, its first task is to identify the databases and servers to be
considered for consolidation. The first step is to list every SQL Server instance in the target
environment. Such a list may already be available, or it may need to be pulled from several sources,
such as SMS inventories, a Remedy database, Tivoli, or internal IT documentation. The HP Consulting
and Integration team offers an assessment service that makes it simple for customers to discover these
servers, along with their configurations. Special care should be taken to distinguish between single
and clustered servers (names of physical nodes, virtual nodes, IP addresses, and failover mode), as
well as SQL default and named instance names. The server list should also include the following
information for each server:
• Hardware information
– Processors (speed, number)
– Memory (size)
– Storage, including type (internal, externally attached, SAN), drives (speed, size, type), arrays,
and RAID levels
• Software information
– Operating system (Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003)
– Build, patch, and service-pack levels
– Applications (and version numbers)
• Network
– IP addresses
– Domain membership
• Other organizational information (see next section for details)
In addition to server-, database-, application-, and performance-specific information, the consolidation
team needs to consider other consolidation categories related to the company’s business needs and
organizational structure. These categories, as well as measured server performance characteristics,
need to be considered when server groupings are identified. Company-related categories may
include these:
• Sensitivity levels and security classifications
– Secret
– Highly confidential
– Confidential
– Unrestricted
– Privacy requirements (e.g., HIPAA, Privacy Act, or financial data)
– Multiple (used if SQL Server hosts databases of varying security levels)
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