Tuesday 18 June 2013

Dynamics CRM 2011 scalling multi-tenants across multiple SQL servers

Recently I've seen a few questions in the forums around placing new tenants on different SQL servers.
This is possible if you using an enterprise license, the option is available when you create a new tenant. You are not necessarily stuck to the SQL server where the MSCRM_CONFIG database is deployed, you could specify a different SQL server. You will need the same permissions as per the deployment guide.

However distributing tenants across multiple servers increases management, complexity and SQL licensing costs. Keep it simple, it's easier and cheaper to upgrade the hardware of one SQL server rather than having those resources distributed across multiple servers.

Creating New Organization
Open deployment manager click New Organization when it gets to the SQL server step specify a different SQL server











Click Next and specify the ReportServer as well













Note: you need local admin permissions on the SQL server and database permissions as per deployment guide.

The below diagram illustrates 4 Organizations distributed across multiple SQL servers and 2 of those with their own SQL Reporting Server.


























Conclusion
You can distribute tenants across multiple SQL servers including the SQL reporting services. A number of things can influence the decision to place tenants on different SQL servers:

  • Legal Reasons
  • Shared Resources
  • Size of databases with impact of backups 
  • Performance
  • Development and Testing

1 comment:

  1. Hi Nuno,

    Thanks for this post, really help me alot. I have a query about setting installing ms crm 2015 reporting extensions on SSRS Web farm. There is no offcial documentation available from Microsoft and couldn't found a proper answer for the same. Appreciate if you can help on this topic.

    Cheers
    Ali

    ReplyDelete