SQL Server 2000 Consolidation: a business case

Abstract
The purpose of this white paper is to prepare IT professionals for a successful IT consolidation
initiative, with an emphasis on the need to consolidate server environments. This paper addresses the
major steps required for a successful consolidation, including factors that need to be considered
before exploring consolidation options.
Database consolidation on Microsoft SQL Server 2000,
64-bit
Microsoft released the 64-bit version of its premier enterprise database, SQL Server 2000, in April
2003. The most successful workload for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Windows
®
Server 2003 on
Itanium
®
-based systems has been in high-volume, high-transaction processing; business intelligence
(BI); and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Some areas where the 64-bit platform has been rapidly
accepted as the right choice for scalability and availability are high-volume transaction and large-
scale data warehouse applications. In fact, many of the early adopters of the 64-bit technology were
data warehouse applications using Microsoft Analysis Services. Large memory addressability is one
of the most important benefits of 64-bit processing, as is the ability to scale up to greater than eight
processors for larger workloads.
Currently, one key area of wide 64-bit adoption is server and database consolidation. Consolidation
is a complex process, requiring a proven methodology and discipline. This white paper details a step-
by-step, proven consolidation methodology that has been tested in the marketplace. This paper
provides customers with a clear roadmap to consolidation on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 64-bit using
Itanium 2–based HP Integrity servers. In addition, it provides an understanding of the database
migration issues that are key to a successful consolidation as SQL Server databases and/or instances
are consolidated from a 32-bit environment to a 64-bit environment. This paper discusses the steps
involved in performing such a migration.
One of the most important factors enabling successful consolidation is the underlying hardware
platform. While several hardware vendors offer 64-bit hardware solutions, HP is uniquely positioned
to offer the most scalable and high-performing solution.
HP Integrity servers make it possible to respond quickly—and competitively—to new opportunities.
Designed on the principles of standardization and built on the foundation of the powerful Intel
®
Itanium 2 microarchitecture plus HP’s performance-enhancing scalable chipsets, the HP Integrity server
family is the industry’s broadest line of Itanium-based servers supporting Windows Server 2003.
HP Integrity servers protect the customer’s investment in IT by design. To handle increased user
demand as the business grows, Integrity servers offer the customer the ability to perform fast, in-box
technology upgrades for greater computing capacity.
The TPC-C benchmark
1
lists HP as the leading high-performance solution for Microsoft SQL Server
2000. In the non-clustered performance category, the HP Integrity Superdome offers 786,646
transactions per minute (tpmC) with a price per transaction (price/tpmC) of U.S.$6.49. These
benchmark results for the HP Integrity Superdome earned an entry in the top ten TPC-C performance
list, including the distinction as the number one Windows single-instance TPC-C record. For more
information on this benchmark, refer to:
www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_perf_results.asp?resulttype=noncluster&version=5&currencyID=0.
1
TPC-C is one of the Transaction Processing Performance Council’s standard benchmarks for measuring computer system performance.
Performance is evaluated based on a model of enterprise transaction processing. Benchmark results are expressed in terms of how many
transactions are performed per minute (tpmC). HP Integrity Superdome, 786,646 tpmC, $6.49/tpmC, with 64 Intel Itanium 2 processors 6M
at 1.5 GHz, each with 6 MB L3 cache, running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition 64-bit and Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Enterprise Edition 64-bit, submitted 08/27/2003, available 10/23/2003. See
www.tpc.org for complete information.
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