Plan to move SQL virtual machines to two ESXi hosts

Disk IO will be your major limiting factor.

Ideally just the steps i would need to go through to implement this at a high level, is it feasible to have approx 33 SQL machines on each host?

Yes, Resources Matter, CPU, Memory, Disk and Networking!!!

Thanks from what I have checked it’s more to do with cores of physical server. What is the best way to approach checking for resources?

Combined the vCPU adds up to 160 for 64 machines a colleague told me that memory wasn’t a factor for licencing

look at the needs and performance of current VMs - you've got all data.

So just go through performance for each VM??

They’ve asked me to just take CPU and Memory into account I’ll be honest given there’s 60 odd machines I’m not sure. How will I account the per core as well as performance?

I haven’t come across a situation with dedicated ESXi hosts for SQL

Is it going to save that much money going forward with per core licences?

Licensing is the smallest of worries. Virtualization does have some overhead.
I'm not familiar with servers that are larger than 4U and have 4 cpu's, I think the largest affordable cpu is a hexadeca core (16 core) @ $2500USD each) or Xenon 8100 26 cores @ $13,000 USD) if money is no object.

Then there is the storage IOPS.. You'd probably want Infiniband networking (100G) to your SAN's..
Where are your bottlenecks now? What are your disk queue's maxing out at.. how many iops do you already have available?

@Andrew can you give me a list of performance checks you’d do for one vm? We don’t have  VRealise.

Should I use esxtop for each vm? Would be grateful for this just need to make a start on it

Also you will want to check if you have any existing performance issues on any of these SQL servers before you move them, e.g. discuss with dBA

please follow this article

HOW TO:  Performance Monitor vSphere 4.x or 5.0

You could install a trial of vROps

Thanks Andrew

Thanks found this link which looks good https://blogs.flexera.c‌‌om/elo/2017/06/an-introduction-to-microsoft-sql-server-licensing/

C‌ould i take same example for 65 SQL VMS with 160 cores, I plan on speaking to the licence manager about this tomorrow, is my way of thinking valid here?‌ Not sure as there 4-5 different versions of SQL I will gather the data as you pointed out, just struggling a little with this, thanks again

SQL Server – Per Core Based Licensing in a Virtualised Environment
When licensing SQL Server under the Per Core model in a virtualised environment, the following will need to be identified:

Example 2 – This SQL Server has two virtual machines, VM1 has two virtual cores and VM2 has six virtual cores.

Ascertain how many virtual cores there are in each virtual machine (keeping in mind the minimum requirement of four cores per virtual machine)
Count the total number of virtual cores
VM1 has two virtual cores, but doesn’t meet the minimum requirement of four virtual cores. VM1 will therefore require four core licenses
VM2 has six virtual cores
A total of eight cores are present, but four are required for VM1 therefore bringing the count up to ten virtual cores, so 5 SQL Server Per Core licenses (packs of 2) are required


Example 2

Note: Licensing of SQL Server Enterprise in a virtualised environment is only supported by the Per Core license model.

‌‌

What CPUs are they being migrated from ?

So new hosts have  CPU E5-2690 v4 @ 2.60GHz ?

Dual Processors ?

I will have to confirm that when onsite at present they have the SQL machines on different hosts not planned etc

That Lenovo Host CPU E5-2690 v4 @2.60GHz is currently in use thats one of the hosts in vSphere 6.5

Should i be looking at cluster calculator and check for MCS in SQL server versions

I realise when  migrating to vSphere 6.5 (vmx13) you can not migrate them to a lower vSphere host. A colleague told me that if MCS is involved we may need to read the small print on the license as we may need to use affinity rules to pin them to dedicated hosts

You need to check whether the SQL VMs are currently hosted on 2.6GHz hosts, or less or more!

will these new hosts have 2 processors per host ?

      Total of 28 cores need to be licensed

Base License Required       

Windows Server® 2016 Datacenter (16 core)      1
Additional Cores To Be Licensed      12
Additional Licenses Required for Compliance       
Windows Server® 2016 Datacenter Additional License (16 core)      0
Windows Server® 2016 Datacenter Additional License (4 core)      3

I will confirm tomorrow thanks Andrew I realise you're going way beyond whats expected here i am very grateful

Hi Andrew, I have been to concentrate only on the VMWare side of with regard to resources etc,

The two hosts looking at are both Lenovo x3650 M5 with processor Intel Xeon CPU E5 2690 V4 @2.60GHz

CPU capacity for both hosts is 72.77GHZ, Memory capacity is 383.19GB, Storage capacity is 50TB

How many logical processors can be run from this server?

Is it a simple matter of using RV Tools and going through cpu and memory for each machine to see if they will fit on 2 hosts, not sure about this thanks in advance

An Intel Xeon CPU E5 2690 V4 @2.60GHz

28 Logical Processors per CPU

Thanks https://ark.intel.com/products/91770/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2690-v4-35M-Cache-2_60-GHz


So with 28 logical processors per CPU, how do i see how many CPUs are available on each server, is there a powercli command i can use?

Dual Processors 2 x 28 ..... total vCPUs available to VMs

often memory and storage i/o will be your bottlenecks not CPU...

but check current capacity....

To be honest I would recommend you install a trial of vRops

Thanks Andrew so to confirm the maximum number of vCPUs each instance of Lenovo x3650 M5 with processor Intel Xeon CPU E5 2690 V4 @2.60GHz can take is 56 vCPUs?

If this is the case it won't fit onto 2 hosts from a vCPU perspective

Again struggling here with the idea so apologies if repeating myself, there are a total of 155 vCPUs in the 60 SQL machines, is there a sizing vm host calculator that I could use?

Thanks Andrew for all your help, i have registered for that capacity planner will take a look at it

Great point on the redundancy, aspect, they're not sure of how clusters will be used either, good few unknowns

http://www.joshodgers.com/vsphere-cluster-sizing-calculator/ 

I will close this and give you the marks, do you have up to date articles on 6.5 handy?

My 6.5 articles are here to assist with your SQL 6.5 cluster...

Part 1:  HOW TO: Install and Configure VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 (ESXi 6.5)

Part 2: HOW TO: Connect to the VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 (ESXi 6.5) using the vSphere (HTML5 Web) Host Client 6.5

Part 3: HOW TO: Create an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image (*.iso), and MD5 checksum signature, for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 (ESXi 6.5)

Part 4: HOW TO: Upload an ISO image to a VMware datastore for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 (ESXi 6.5) using the vSphere Host Client, and checking its MD5 checksum signature is correct.

Part 5: HOW TO: Enable SSH Remote Access on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 (ESXi 6.5)

Part 6: HOW TO: Suppress Configuration Issues and Warnings Alert displayed in Summary status for ESXi 6.5 after enabling SSH or ESXi Shell

Part 7: HOW TO: Create your first Windows Virtual Machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 (ESXi 6.5) Host Server

Part 8: HOW TO: Install VMware Tools for Windows on a VMware Windows virtual machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 (ESXi 6.5) Host Server

HOW TO: Deploy and Install the VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 (VCSA 6.5)

Step by Step tutorials, with screenshots, aimed at novices and beginners, and using the VMware Host Client to configure and manage, remember vSphere Client is NOT SUPPORTED, and is DEPRECATED.

Yes, we may not like Host Client, Web Client, or what ever you want to call it, but it's here to stay. So I'll be re-writing all the old favourites but using a web browser!

Pay particular attention to using VCSA now and the Web Client...