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VMWare VCenter 4.0

Hi

We are running vmware vsphere ESX 4.0 and Vcenter database is on SQL 2005 enterprise on seperate vmware machine. My question we can move vcenter database from SQL 2005 enterprise to SQL 2005 Express. This is purely because of license reason as we have not SQL license so wondering if we can move the database to express edition. Is it possible if yes are there any implications i should be considering and finally how to do this.

Thanks
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Yes, you can move it, however, using SQL Express is limited to a maxium of a 4GB database, so you may have to watch the size of your database, because a common issue, is vCenter Service stops because your database has grown beyond 4GB.
How big is the current database, and do you want to keep existing performance database, events, logs and layouts, and resource pools?
SQL express is only supported if your environment is less than 5 hosts and 100 VM's and that will basically determine how large your database will potentially grow to.  if it is larger as stated previously, then you can shrink it down (usually, the size gets large because the rollup jobs aren't running through to completion).

If you have a small environment without DVS or SRM, and you don't mind losing your historical data for performance stats and tasks/events, then it is usually just quicker to do a clean install/re-install and create new database instance.  Then re-add your hosts and, if it's a new server, re-extract the sysprep files (if used for vm creation/cloning), configure HA/DRS and you're back in business with no VM downtime.  All of the datastore and network configurations are on the hosts and the VC will just query the hosts to put the info back into the database.
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tech2010

ASKER

Thanks both of you.

ok so what if i need to move vmware database from one SQL server enterprise to another SQL server enterprise. Is there any problem with that or is it just simple? Do i need to consider prior to migrate database? I am running HA and DRS and have 140 VMs running on 10 ESX hosts.

Thanks
From damn66 posting, SQL Express would not be supported for your 140 VMs running on 10 ESX hosts.

But simply Detach, Copy you Existing Database from SQL Server to new SQL Server, Re-attach.

As for operation.

Stop the vCenter Service. (DRS will not function), but HA will continue as it does not require vCenter.

Change the ODBC reference to new Server.

Restart Service.
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Avatar of Danny McDaniel
Danny McDaniel
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