VC Database Performance for MS SQL 2005

VMware VirtualCenter uses a database to store metadata on the state of a VMware Infrastructure environment. Performance statistics and their associated stored procedure operations constitute the largest and the most resource�?intensive component of the VirtualCenter database. Hence the performance of your VirtualCenter database depends upon the frequency at which you collect performance statistics and the level of detail of the statistics you store. VirtualCenter 2.5 features a number of enhancements that are aimed at greatly improving the performance and scalability of the performance statistics operations in the VirtualCenter database. The purpose of this study is to present the performance results of tests we conducted to validate these performance enhancements and to provide best practices information for configuring a VirtualCenter database. The study also provides information for sizing the server you use to host the VirtualCenter database based on these performance results. Although the new features in VirtualCenter 2.5 benefit users with any of the supported databases, the examples and performance data presented in this study are specific to Microsoft SQL Server and the paper assumes that you have a working knowledge of SQL Server.