I remember the old batman shows had a “don’t try this at home” disclaimer after every show, and this came to mind as I started playing with Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and SQL Server 2008  on my new shuttle PC (4 cores, 8gb RAM, 1TB on three disks)

Here’s what I’ve done

Installed Windows Server 2008 enterprise (you’ll see why in a minute) and added the Hyper-V role and then rebooted.

Added four virtual machines (hence the need for enterprise as it supports four vm’s):

• W2K8DC is a domain controller with a side serving of ISCSI, so 2 networks will be needed (one external one internal). Leave to install and then add 4 devices (quorum, Data Disk, Log Disk and one for MSDTC).
• W2K8Node1 Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 as this isn’t a cluster this a SQL Server cluster (apologies to M&S).
• Create node 2  like node 1
• SQL08Demo Another SQL Server virtual machine, but with three instances of SQL Server on it  where they are the principle, mirror and witness.

With this rig you can now play with disaster recovery and high availability in SQL Server and work out what’s best for you.  For example log ship from the cluster, log ship to the cluster form the mirror, snapshot, and replicate yourself silly.The cost is £1600 for the shuttle and £300 odd (depending on the offer you get) for a Tech|Net subscription so you have the software you need and the knowledge base  to use it properly.

I also have to confess I built mine with a lot of help from Daniel Sol (a SQL Server support supremo) so that I can show all of this off at TechEd Barcelona on Monday.  If you want to find out more about this and you are going then come along to DAT302, and if you’re not Daniel and I will be showing you how when I get back via a series of blogcasts.

Finally the disclaimers..

• Don’t try this in production
• No databases were harmed or otherwise corrupted during the making of this demo.