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Building the first SQL Server in the Lab – Part 1

Now that I have a domain controller, I can start adding SQL servers.  The first thing I need to do is to create another clone from my template.  I did so, and named that new server SQL01.  Before I start up this server, however, I want to add additional drives, so I can follow best practices of isolating the MDF, LDF, tempdb, and backup files.  For a lab, it may seem a little like overkill, but I want to set up automated SQL installs, so having all of my disk partitions set up ahead of time is worth the effort for me.

To accomplish this, open up the VirtualBox console.  I right-click on the newly created image, and select Settings (or highlight the server and click the Settings gear icon).  I select the Storage page, and I see the currently allocated disk.

Here I want to click on Controller:SATA and then click the ‘plus’ icon on the right side.

SQLDisks2

This will bring up a dialog that asks is I want to create a new disk or use an existing one.

SQLDisks3

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Create a Domain

The next step in creating a test lab is to take my first cloned machine created previously, and make it a domain controller.  Although this is… Read More »Create a Domain

Cloning a Server

In the previous post, we laid the ground work for creating our test environment.  Now that the groundwork has been completed, we will clone the server.  Although this process will be for cloning my template to create a server that will become a domain controller, that is irrelevant here. The process is the same for any server.

To clone the image, in VirtualBox, right-click on the server template you have created, and select “Clone” from the context menu.  Give the machine an appropriate name (in this case DC1) and select the option to reinitialize the MAC address.  If you do not do this you will have MAC address conflicts when you run multiple cloned images.

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Creating a Template

Once you have VirtualBox installed it is time to create your first virtual machine.  It will become a template for all of the other machines.  I will be using Windows Server 2008 R2, x64.  You can download a 180 evaluation copy from Microsoft. You can download and then mount the ISO, or have a physical DVD.

Once you have some Windows Media available, fire up VirtualBox.  When you do, you will see a screen that looks a little like the following image.  This was not the first time I had fired up VirtualBox, so I had already played around and created a Linux image.  Once the application is open, click the blue icon on the ribbon labled ‘New’.

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Building a Test Environment

You can read all of the books and blogs you like, watch videos, and see presentations.  But if you really want to learn some piece of technology, you need to play with it.  Break it, and then try and fix it.  Maybe implementing that new feature is not as straightforward as the marketing folks imply. Maybe when I install something, it breaks something else.  How do I fix this?  What can I do to avoid that in the future.

Most companies do not want you experimenting on production equipment.  For good reason.  However, when the poo hits the fan, they want you to be prepared.  So, as I start learning the new features of SQL 2012, I want to build a test lab. This is not nearly as complicated as it was in past years, with the advent of  virtualization.

To experiment with all of the features of SQL 2012, I will need several database servers, for implementing AlwaysOn features, experimenting with replication and log shipping, etc.  These servers will also need to be part of a domain.  All told, I will need at least 4 servers – a domain controller and three SQL servers.Read More »Building a Test Environment