As you may know Hyper-V is the new kid on Windows 2008 block that offers the scalability enhancement using operating system for SQL Server.
Here Microsoft IT has combined the power of Hyper-V and SQL Server that provides thousands of SQL Server instances for internal applications. It includes a lot of interesting new information, including results of specific tests they performed to evaluate their options.
You can download the white paper and a list of topics covered in this 26-page white paper:
- Executive Overview
- Introduction
- Considerations for Consolidation and Virtualization
- Identification of Underutilized Servers
- Server temperature
- Consolidation Approaches
- Virtualization Platform: WSRM vs. Hyper-V
- Implementation of the SQL Utility
- Service Offerings
- Identification of Candidates for Migration
- Attributes of System Quality
- Availability and Business Continuity
- Environmental Sustainability
- Manageability
- Performance
- Predictability and Repeatability
- Reliability
- Scalability
- Security
- Monitoring
- Supportability
- Conclusion
It also includes lots of interesting diagrams, including details on their specific hardward configuration. While not evident on the outline above, the white paper compares the options to use multiple instances of SQL without Hyper-V with having multiple virtual machines with single instances of SQL Server. Not only it looks at the different pros and cons, but also provides interesting performance information.