Category: System Administration

How to Install Microsoft SQL Server 2017 on Linux

SQL Server 2017 and SQL Server 2019 editions are supported on Linux / SUSE & Ubuntu Operating Systems.

We will discuss how the Installation takes place and how to get connected to the Database Server.

The below article will walktrough how the SQL Server installation works;

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/quickstart-install-connect-red-hat?view=sql-server-2017

After the successful installation, you may try connecting to SQL Server on Linux from Windows Clients

Step 01: Download SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and install it on a Windows Client.

Step 02: After finishing installation, Run SSMS.

Step 03: Input your Server name or IP address and username/password to connect. For Authentication, Select [SQL Server Authentication]

Step 04: Now, you are connected. It’s possible to operate SQL Server on GUI with SSMS

RDM intro and Migrating virtual machines with Raw Device Mappings

First of all we will discuss about a common use case with regards to the RDM – Raw Device Mappings,

Microsoft failover clustering service requires to have RDM volumes specially when using the multi host clustering setup (cluster-across-boxes)

In this setup, Physical compatibility mode is being used. By doing this the VM will have more IOPS access than the virtualized storage.

Raw device mapping (RDM) is a mapping file that provides direct access to a LUN on an iscsi or fibre channel storage system for a virtual machine. RDM is basically a Mapping file acts as a proxy for a raw physical storage device placed in a VMFS volume. Virtual Machine can directly access the storage device using RDM and RDM contains metadata which controls the disk access to the physical device. Raw Device Mapping (RDM) gives you some of the advantages of direct access to a physical device while keeping some advantages of a virtual disk in VMFS. 

Now, let’s discuss the Migration process of the VM servers with RDM in detail;

Migrating virtual machines with RDMs can be performed in three ways:

  1. Warm migration (vMotion), with the virtual machine powered on.
  2. Cold migration, with the virtual machine powered off.
  3. Storage migration (Storage vMotion), with the virtual machine powered on.

To be honest, this process is a pain and also not an easy task to carry out.

But VMware discusses some of the common questions that arise when migrating virtual machines that use Raw Device Mappings (RDMs).

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1005241