[dba-SQLServer] Clearing the decks for MySQL

I run three VMs pretty much 24/7 here at my home office, one which I call vmDev which is my 
development machine, another is my Accuzip third party software vm and one final machine runs SQL 
Server Express for Access clients coming in over the internet.  I had a dedicated server for VMs 
which I actually just upgraded to a new motherboard, DDR3 ram etc in preparation for the new AM3+ 
bulldozer processor.  Given the weak performance of the new processor I am hanging out waiting for 
the next rev / price drops before taking that plunge.

what I did do however is move all three of those VMs off onto my 16 core SQL Server machine.  The 
only VM which truly needs much horsepower is the Accuzip VM and my performance dropped by half when 
I did the move.  Whereas I was getting about 8-9 million records / hour on the dedicated VM Server, 
on Azul SQL Server machine I am lucky to get 4.5 million per hour.  The difference is mostly just 
the core speed.  The Magney-Cours server chips that I could afford run at 2.0 ghz and have ddr3 1300 
memory (registered and ECC), whereas the new motherboard has DDR 1600 memory and a quad core Phenom 
lightly overclocked to 3.3 ghz.  The additional clock speed and memory speed apparently makes for 
significant additional horsepower.

Anyway, I have decided to take the speed hit on the Accuzip VM in order to clean off what was my 
dedicated VM server and use that for a MySQL machine.  As servers go this machine is somewhat wimpy 
with 4 cores and 16 gigs of memory but for learning MySQL it should suffice.

There has been a bit of interest expressed in MySQL, with some list members already using it and 
others trying to learn it.  I count myself in the trying to learn it crowd.

My intention is to go with MariaDB.  Since I have Hyper-V running on this machine I am thinking 
about running mariaDB itself on a VM which would allow me to move the VM should I decide to keep it. 
  I have to say I am not having a lot of luck getting a Linux distro running on a Hyper-V VM, but if 
I can make that happen that would be my preference.

If anyone out there has experience getting a linux distro running in a Hyper-V VM running MariaDB 
let me know.

I look forward to discussing MySQL with everyone interested in the subject.

-- 
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it