Installing Fusion and creating a Windows virtual machine
For this article series, VMware Fusion was used as the virtualization software for Mac. So, before any virtual machines (Windows, Ubuntu / Linux) were created, Fusion software was installed on the Mac. Please refer to the following article for notes on installing Fusion on the Mac:
Installing Fusion on Mac OS X
Then a Windows Vista Ultimate virtual machine was created on the Mac with Fusion software. For notes on creating a Vista virtual machine on Mac, please refer to the following article:
Installing Windows on a Mac with Fusion
Then on top of that, SQL Server was installed. Please refer to the following article for notes on that:
Installing SQL Server on a Mac with Fusion
Rest of this article goes through using the SQL server created (as above) on a virtual machine.
SQL Server Tools and Processes
Installation of SQL Server 2008 gives several tools. One of the most important of these tools is SQL Server Management Studio. Following is the listing the tools installed with SQL Server 2008:
- SQL Server Management Studio
- SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio
- SQL Server Profiler
- Import and Export Data
- Deployment Wizard from Analysis Services
- Several Configuration Tools
- Integration Services
- Documentation and Tutorials
Figure 1. SQL Server 2008 Tools installed on a Windows Vista Ultimate virtual machine created with VMware Fusion.
SQL Server also uses many services. These are the SQL Server services running on this virtual machine created with Fusion:
- SQL Server (for the instance)
- SQL Server Browser
- SQL Server Agent
- SQL Full-text Filter Daemon Launcher
- SQL Server Active Directory Helper
- SQL Server Analysis Services
- SQL Server Integration Services
- SQL Server Reporting Services
- SQL Server VSS Writer
Figure 2. SQL Server Services from the SQL Server Configuration Manager. These services are running inside a Vista virtual machine on an iMac.
Installing Sample Databases
To test the functionality of the SQL Server database, a sample database (Adventure Works) is installed. The sample database Adventure Works can be obtained from the following location:
Adventure Works Sample Database
Figure 3. Installing the Adventure Works database on SQL Server 2008. This SQL Server is on a virtual machine.
The default location for these samples is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\.
Figure 4. The samples and databases from AdventureWorks are installed on this virtual machine.
Figure 5. Installing Adventure Works 2008. Needs a couple of features enabled.
Figure 6. Finished installation of AdventureWorks Database on Vista on Mac.
Databases in SQL Server Management Studio
After the Adventure Works samples have been installed, you can see many AdventureWorks databases in the SQL Server instance where it has been installed. The goal here is to see how the database behaves in a virtual environment.
In this case, three AdventureWorks databases are installed: AdventureWorks2008 (lot of tables), AdventureWorksDW2008 (for data warehouse), and AdventureWorksLT2008 (smaller set of tables).
Figure 7. Top 1000 rows from the Person table from the SQL Server Management Studio on Vista on Mac.
In the figure below, a new database diagram is created using Person as the central object. In order to create this database diagram, first the Person table is selected and then all the related tables are added to the diagram. Then these tables are arranged.
As you can see in the diagram below, the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio here is in the Windows Vista virtual machine. At the top of the window, you can see the VMware Fusion toolbar; Fusion is the virtualization software used to create the Vista virtual machine here.
Figure 8. Database Diagram for the Person table in the SQL Server Management Studio on a Vista virtual machine.
SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio
SQL Server 2008 comes with Business Intelligence Development Studio. This is basically Visual Studio 2008 with templates for Business Intelligence Projects. As you can see from the figure below, following BI templates are added to Visual Studio 2008:
- Analysis Services Project
- Import Analysis Services 2008 Database
- Integration Services Connections Project
- Integration Services Project
- Report Server Project Wizard
- Report Model Project
- Report Server Project
Figure 9. Business Intelligence project templates in Visual Studio 2008. This is running on a Vista virtual machine on an iMac.
Figure 10. A sample Analysis Services Project built and deployed from Business Intelligence Studio on a Vista virtual machine.
Summary
Here the test was to see if an SQL Server 2008 database server can be installed locally on a Windows Vista Ultimate virtual machine created by VMware Fusion. As you can see from the article above, the server and associated tools install fine. The tools like SQL Server Management Studio and Business Intelligence Studio work fine. However, no testing is done here to see if the server (in this particular setting) would handle a production environment. Obviously, this wouldn’t be the set up for a production environment needing performance and availability.
More Articles on Fusion
This article series on Fusion goes through a couple of virtual machines created with Windows Vista and Ubuntu operating systems. These articles also go through using popular applications like Microsoft Office, SQL Server, and Visual Studio on these virtual machines created with Fusion. They also discuss the pros and cons of virtual machines, graphics, sound, video, and Internet connections in them.
Article Series: Fusion on a Mac
