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nic
Posting Yak Master
209 Posts |
 Posted - 2009-02-04 : 12:51:04
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| Hi,We are looking to replace some aging hardware/software and are thinking about making the 64bit plunge (specifically Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008). This will be a fairly drastic change since currently we don't have any 64 bit servers (currently all of our servers are Windows 2003 with SQL2005 or SQL2000). I know there are various pros/cons to making the jump but it just seems 64 bit has been around for a little bit and at some point everything will be transitioning over (the improvements to memory allocation are just too good to pass up). The server in question will just run a database (used by a website) that doesn't use any additional items such as SSIS, Analysis services etc. (mostly just sprocs, tables, views etc - just normal relational database objects/processes).I am currently reviewing SQL Server 2008 to make sure our database upgrades properly, but assuming that goes well are there any major caveats to going to 64 bit??Thanks,Nic |
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saurabhsrivastava
Posting Yak Master
216 Posts |
Posted - 2009-02-04 : 13:43:37
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| 64-BIT has two falvours; x-64 and IA-64 both processor architecture are completely different which one are you refering to. |
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saurabhsrivastava
Posting Yak Master
216 Posts |
Posted - 2009-02-04 : 13:46:03
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| what upgrade process are you following (just SQL Serve Upgrade advisor) or something else; give us some idea or list down steps to help you better. |
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nic
Posting Yak Master
209 Posts |
Posted - 2009-02-04 : 14:16:47
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| We would be upgrading to x-64. This would be a brand new server (the older server will still exist for other purposes but we will be moving some databases that it currently hosts). So the transistion/upgrade process would be to essentially install SQL 2008 on the new server, back up a database from a SQL 2005 database, and restore into the new server.So the only upgrade is really just restoring a backup from a pre-existing instance of 2005 (located on a different server).Nic |
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dinakar
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2507 Posts |
Posted - 2009-02-04 : 17:57:52
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| You dont need to tweak any of the memory related settings that you needed to in x86, if you had more than 3 GB RAM. x64 by default can (and perhaps will) consume all the memory available for caching query plans and data. So its important you cap SQL Server to allow some memory for OS. Besides that check out DTS packages if you have any. You will probably need to install the DTS Components for x86 unless you are converting them to SSIS packages. You will probably begin to see much improved performance on x64.Dinakar Nethi************************Life is short. Enjoy it.************************http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/dinakar/ |
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saurabhsrivastava
Posting Yak Master
216 Posts |
Posted - 2009-02-04 : 21:35:47
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| If you're sure that all objects are comatible to SQL 2008, backup & Restore will be fine. If not, at the minimum run SQL Server Upgrade Advisor to find out comatibility issues. Regarding memory: The memory behavior is slightly different between SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2000. SQL Server 2000 won't respond to memory pressure when running with lock pages in memory option so you will have to configure max server memory setting in such a way that you leave enough free memory to Windows and other applications on the machine. SQL Server 2008 does respond to memory pressure both when lock pages in memory is enabled and disabled. So leave memory options to default if you are not experiencing memory pressure, let system manage it. MEMORY SETTING IS NT MANDATORY. |
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64 bit plunge