HYPER-V AND SQL
ADMINISTRATION
Presented by:
Kevin Brunson
Chief Technology Officer
What We Will Discuss
Microsoft Hyper-V
 What is it?
 Common Tasks Demo: How-To
 Enable
Replication
 Failover a VM
 Enable Live Migration

Gotchas
What We Will Discuss
Windows 2016 Hyper-V Crystal Ball
 What do we know?
 Confirmed

in Technical Preview
What do we think?
 Discussed
by Microsoft
What We Will Discuss
SQL Administration
 SQL Physical DB Architecture Review
 SQL Recovery Models
 SQL Backups/Maintenance Plans
 Tips/Tricks/Regular Tasks
Why The Broad Range of Topics



I couldn’t make up my mind
I don’t want to rehash the same thing over and over
Jason Powell said “Do it all”
Hyper-V in a Nutshell
Host/Guest Model
Host Server
 Windows installed on hardware like traditional OS
 Runs Hyper-Visor software
Guest Server
 Windows installed on software masquerading as
hardware
 Runs applications
Go and Do Likewise
Common Tasks
Replication/Failover
Live Migration
Hyper-V Replication Concepts

How does it work?
Server configuration replicated once
 Drives replicated on a regular basis
 Failover/Failback


How much bandwidth does it take?
I hate to answer a question with a question…
 How much data are you trying to keep replicated?
 How fast does it change?

Web Server – Probably doesn’t change much
 Exchange Server – Probably changes a lot

Hyper-V Replication Concepts

What is it for?
 Very
fast recovery of server failure
 Site redundancy if you have the bandwidth

What is it not for?
 Backups
Demonstration – Live Migration
Let’s Move a Server With No Downtime
 A few things to notice

Hyper-V doesn’t compress the drive contents when
performing a Live Migration, so it takes longer than
Replication
 You
can’t Live Migrate a server if the server has
already been replicated to the destination host
 You will need to make some changes to Active Directory
before Live Migration will work correctly
DEMO
Demonstration - Replication
Let’s Enable Replication
 A few things to notice
 Hyper-V
compresses the contents of the disks as they
traverse the network.
 Once the system is replicated, you can change settings
on the primary system and it won’t update the replica.
DEMO
Demonstration - Failover
Now Let’s Failover a Server
 A few things to notice
 Failover
requires more than just starting the server, but
not much
 A Planned Failover is graceful and resyncs changes
before it completes. An Unplanned Failover is not
graceful and assumes the data on the old server is
worthless.
DEMO
Gotchas


Check replication health on a regular basis
Domain controllers are not good candidates for
replication
Hyper-V In The Future
What’s Coming?
Features in Technical Preview
Features Rumored for Final Release
Features that Improve Administration

Almost instant VHDX creation, even for Fixed Size
Disks
 Fixed
size VHDX in less than 5 seconds, no matter the
size




Add/Remove RAM on a running VM, even if you’re
not using Dynamic Memory
Add/Remove Network Adapters on a running VM
Integration Services drivers deployed via Windows
Update
Powershell Direct
Features that Improve
Security or Reliability

Nano
 92%

fewer critical bulletins, 80% fewer reboots
VM Checkpoints use VSS technology in the VM
instead of Saved States
 Application

consistent snapshots
Shielded VMs
 Bitlocker
encrypted VHDX, virtual TPM
 Host Administrator can have limited or no access to VM
Features that We May or May Not See

Nested Virtualization
 Microsoft
says it will be there at release
 Not supported in TP3
 Why does it matter?

GUI out of the box
 TP2
required you to enable GUI after install
 TP3 gives an install option during OS load
 Where will they end up?
A Short Biblical Study
One of the most commonly used names of
God in the Old Testament, used almost 300
times, is Jehovah Sabaoth, which means
Lord of Hosts.
God Is The Ultimate VirtAdmin
Reset and a Prayer
Prayer of the Broken VM
Psalm 80:19 (ESV)
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Now the Awkward Transition
SQL Fundamentals
SQL Physical DB Architecture Review
SQL Recovery Models
SQL Backups/Maintenance Plans
Tips/Tricks/Regular Tasks
SQL Database Files
SQL Databases are composed of at least 2 files
 MDF - Contains schema and data
 LDF - Contains a history of changes made to the
database

Both are required for a database to function
Database Recovery Models

Full
 All

transactions recorded in transaction log
Simple
 System

reclaims log space as necessary
Bulk-logged
 Uses
minimal logging for bulk transactions
Full Recovery Model




Allows point-in-time
restores
LDF file growth can
become a problem
without proper
maintenance
Restore process is more
complicated
Greatest system
resource overhead
Simple Recovery Model




Can be restored only
to time of last full
backup
LDF file remains small
Restore process is
simple
Smallest system
resource overhead
Bulk-logged Recovery Model




Not point-in-time, but
can be restored to time
of last backup
LDF file remains smaller
than Full Recovery
Not recommended for
production systems
That will be the last time
we mention Bulk-logged
Backup Types

Full Backup
 Complete
copy of your database
 Includes MDF and LDF

Transaction Log Backup
 Dump
of the database transaction log
 Contains all changes to the database since the last log
backup
Full Backup


Restorable by itself or as part of a point-in-time
restore process
Can function as the start of a transaction log chain
for point-in-time restores
Transaction Log Backup




Used only for point-in-time restores
Used only for Full Recovery databases
Must be used in conjunction with a full backup
Entire transaction log chain must be present
What Happens When?

Full Backup
 Makes

no changes to the database
Transaction Log Backup
 Marks
transaction log as overwriteable
 A large LDF file will still be large, but it will be
essentially empty
 Won’t grow again until the file fills up
Walk Through The Backup Lifecycle


First Full Backup Allows DB to start logging
Transaction Log Backup starts
 SQL
dumps contents of log to backup location
 SQL marks log as not needed



SQL starts overwriting log
Server runs out of space
SQL stops servicing
Backup Considerations

Backup Compression
 SQL
2008 Enterprise
 2008 R2, 2012, 2014, Standard and Enterprise
 Considerably less disk space
 Faster backup performance
 Take the performance hit into consideration when
scheduling


Transaction Log Backups should occur as often as
necessary to meet business requirements
Local backups don’t help if you lose the volume
Why Don’t I Have Backups?


SQL Express doesn’t come with the SQL Agent
If you have Express you will need to run backups
another way
 3rd
Party Backup Application (Like Shelby
Backup/Restore) for scheduling
 Jobs run via batch file from Scheduled Tasks
 Manual

You probably shouldn’t use Full Recovery on an
Express database
What is SQL Express anyway?


SQL Express is designed for small databases with small
user counts
SQL 2014 Express has the following limits:
10GB MDF file size
 1GB RAM per instance
 1 socket or 4 cores


For comparison, SQL Standard can use:
524PB MDF file size
 128GB of RAM per instance
 The lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores

Other Key Maintenance

Cleanup – Delete old files by age
 Make

Shrink – Remove unused pages to reduce filesize
 If

sure you take bak and trn into account
in Full Recovery, run Transaction Log backup first
Re-index – Speed up your DBs by reducing index
fragmentation
 Causes
a big spike in Transaction Log size
Weekly (Or Daily) Tasks for You



Check Disk Space
Check DB Size (MDF and LDF)
Agent Job Status
 Are
Full Backups running?
 Are Transaction Log Backups running?
 Are other Maintenance Plans running?

Verify that your backups are writing to something
else: Tape, Disk, Offsite, External Storage, etc.
Monthly (Or Weekly) Tasks for You

Test Restore


Windows Updates



Are your backups actually usable?
SQL Updates actually fix real problems
Check DB Size (MDF and LDF)
Agent Job Status
Are Full Backups running?
 Are Transaction Log Backups running?
 Are other Maintenance Plans running?


Verify that your backups are writing to something else:
Tape, Disk, Offsite, External Storage, etc.
About the Presenter:
Kevin Brunson is the Chief Technology Officer of
Higher Ground Technologies in Collierville, TN. He
holds a BA degree from Crichton College and a
myriad of industry certifications including MCSE.
Kevin has been working with church technology since
2000.
Higher Ground Technologies, Inc exists to serve the
unique technology needs of churches nationwide. The
company provides network design and consulting services,
system integration and a full suite of IT management
services for churches wishing to outsource some or all of
their technology management. Higher Ground Technologies
also provides VoIP communication systems, enterprise
wireless networks, secure online backup services, 24x7
network monitoring and support, and high performance,
extremely reliable network servers and security devices.