Hi All,
I am currently in the process of producing a spec to move a customer SQL Installation from a VM to a physical server. Unfortunatly the client is tied into using Dell Servers and there are some stickking points with regards some of the min specs for the SQL server. They have an SLX Installation with approx 20000 elements and two polling engines.
The model i am looking at has only certain processors available with out a significant price increase, The processor in the model they are pushing for is an Intel Xeon E5-2407 quad core 2.2ghz processor. I know the spec from SW requires a dual core @ 3Ghz.
My question is would the doubling of cores make up for the shortfall is speed? Has anyone used a similar spec processor with success. In all other aspects the server far exceeds requirements however to match the 3.0Ghz speed requires a different chassis and an 8 Core processor which has an extra 2K on the price tag as well as other implications with regards SQL licensing.
As an aside has anyone else managed to run the SQL server for this size of installation on a VM? If so what specs did you use? The current VM is using a fibre channel SAN and there are questions about whether or not the VM could be beffed up to support the Installation given spiralling costs of a physical device and licensing.
Your help as always is appreciated