What is the benefit of installing SQL 2012 on windows 2012?
After the release of Windows 2012, I get questions like what is the benefit of installing SQL 2012 on windows 2012 compared to installing it on Windows 2008 R2.
Microsoft recently released the following KB article which answers some of the questions around SQL 2012 support for Windows 8 and Windows 2012
Here is the relevant snippet from the KB article:
The following table summarizes how versions of SQL Server work with some of the new features in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012:
Note Unless noted in the following table, all features of Windows Server 2012 are supported in all the supported versions of SQL server.
Feature |
SQL feature or component that interacts with this new feature |
SQL feature that is affected or supported |
Minimum version and service pack requirements for SQL |
Exceptions or support limitations |
Additional information |
Storage Spaces |
SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 or later version, SQL Server 2012 (RTM and later versions) |
This feature is supported with the service packs that are specified for the respective versions. |
|||
Resilient File System (ReFS) |
ReFS is not supported in SQL 2012 and all other down-level versions. In the future, support may be added. |
||||
Mitigation of RAM Hardware Errors |
LazyWriter |
Checksum page sniffer |
SQL Server 2012 |
When SQL Server 2012 is installed on a Windows 2012 operating system with hardware that supports bad memory diagnostics, you will notice new error messages like 854, 855, and 856 instead of the 832 errors that LazyWriter usually generates. |
|
Number of instances per cluster |
High availability |
Failover Clustering |
SQL Server 2012 |
25 per failover cluster when you use drive letters and up to 50 if you are using SMB file share storage |
|
Cluster Share Volumes (CSV's) |
Not supported with any version of SQL Server |
Bottom line: Storage Spaces and Mitigation of RAM Hardware errors are the 2 new windows 2012 features that are supported by SQL 2012. Microsoft will update the KB article as more information about SQL working with Windows 2012 features becomes available. Hence watch that space.
KB Article: Using SQL Server in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 environments
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2681562
You might also want to check the Setup Known issues on Windows 2012 section in the same KB article before installing your SQL server.
· Known SQL Server 2012 setup and migration issues
· Known SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 setup issues
· Additional SQL Server 2012 setup issues
· Setup issues that can occur when the .Net Framework 3.5 is not enabled