Since the release of SQL Server 7.0 in 1998, SQL Server has been on the enterprise fast track, easily clearing the hurdles that hindered the adoption of earlier SQL Server versions in the enterprise. Support for a new scale-out technology called distributed partitioned views boosted SQL Server to the top of the TPC-C rankings for clustered database systems. (TPC-C is a standard benchmark for database systems, designed by the Transaction Performance Processing Council—or TPC—which consists of all the major database vendors. The TPC-C test measures transactions per minute—or tpmC.) SQL Server also broke into the TPC-C top 10 for nonclustered systems but fell short of the best scale-up database solutions by IBM and Oracle, which ran on more powerful hardware. Even so, SQL Server has continued to make significant gains in scalability, and the new SQL Server 2000 64-bit Enterprise Edition (formerly code-named Liberty) moves SQL Server even closer to the peaks of enterprise scalability. Let's look at SQL Server 64-bit's features and see when deploying this powerful new platform, expected to be available in April, makes sense.
Features and Requirements
Obviously, the primary requirements for running the 64-bit edition of SQL Server are 64-bit hardware and a 64-bit OS. For the OS, SQL Server 2000 64-bit Enterprise Edition requires the Windows Server 2003 64-bit Edition, which runs only on systems built on the new 64-bit Intel Itanium CPU. At the time of this writing, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and NEC produce 64-bit Itanium-based systems. HP currently produces a line of 64-bit workstations (models zx6000 and zx2000) and a line of 64-bit servers (models rx5670, rx2600, and rx9610). However, at least 20 more hardware vendors—including Unisys, Fujitsu Siemens, Dell, and IBM—expect to have Itanium-based servers available by midyear. You can learn more about the Intel Itanium chip and its Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) architecture in the sidebar "Itanium Inside," page 23.
SQL Server 2000 64-bit Enterprise Edition provides a native 64-bit version of all major database server components, including a 64-bit version of the SQL Server database engine, a 64-bit SQL Server Agent for scheduling jobs, and a 64-bit analytics server. The most significant new feature in the SQL Server 64-bit Edition is the massive increase in addressable memory. Memory is typically the biggest hurdle to database scalability, and the 64-bit version of SQL Server delivers it in spades. It supports as much as 32TB of addressable memory and a nearly unlimited amount of virtual memory running on Windows Server 2003. Of course, hardware vendors have yet to actually produce any systems that support this much RAM. So far, Microsoft has tested the 64-bit version of SQL Server on systems that have as much as 256GB of RAM.
In addition to the new 64-bit database engine, the SQL Server 64-bit Edition also sports a new Windows Installer-based setup program. The new setup program provides an easier-to-use single feature tree, which lets you select the features to install from a list that's displayed on the left side of the screen, and includes an integrated option to install Analysis Services.
100 Percent Compatible
The 64-bit release is nearly 100 percent compatible with the 32-bit version of SQL Server. You don't have to change any of your existing client applications, which can connect seamlessly to either 32-bit or 64-bit SQL Server systems. Likewise, T-SQL is completely code-compatible. When Microsoft developers redesigned SQL Server for the 7.0 release, they built the SQL Server internals with 64-bit processing in mind. Consequently, all versions from 7.0 on support the same data types, and 64-bit SQL Server doesn't change the on-disk database file formats.
The fact that 64-bit SQL Server uses the same on-disk formats makes migrating to 64-bit SQL Server a snap. Essentially, you detach the database from the 32-bit server, reattach it to the 64-bit server, and you're migrated. Alternatively, you can migrate by using the Copy Database Wizard, which besides moving the database, copies your database logins to the new master database.
In addition to its compatibility with 32-bit versions of SQL Server and client applications, SQL Server 2000 64-bit Edition is also fully compatible with the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003. The 64-bit version of SQL Server leverages many of the 64-bit components that come with Windows Server 2003 64-bit Edition, including Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.7, Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC), HTML Help, and the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).