Virtual PC and SQL Server Issue - can't use USB drive as local - VP_DBde

Hi,

Here is my SQL Server and virtual PC problem.

I have a laptop which I have SQL Server 2000 and 2005 installed and a custom
application installed.
Now I have many customer databases which are 30GB+ in size which I attach to
SQL Server by attaching the USB drive letter and path to the mdf and ldf
file. I usually only attach one at a time for performance.

Now I was told to support all the version of the custom applications instead
of just the one version and since only one version can run on my PC at a time
Virtual PC would be ideal for me.

I created my Virtual PC image (10GB) installed SQL server as well as the
custom app. My problem is that I don't want to include the database file
(various customer database files 30Gb to 60Gb) to the image itself but want
to attach it to it in my Virtual PC image's SQL Server. from an external USB
drive The problem is USB drives do not show up in Virtual PC as a local
drive. If I install shared networking on the Virtual PC and  then map it to
my USB drive I have the problem that SQL Server don't allow me to attach
files on that drive as it is NOT a local drive. SQL Server also does NOT
allow attaching database files on a network share.

So I'm pretty much screwed. A possible alternative was for me point my
application on the virtual PC to the SQL server instance on my host machine
which has the USB drive database attached. The solution does not work for the
following reasons:
1)My primary machine is on my work domain and the custom app would require
domain authentication and since I work at customer sites domain
authentication would fail.
2) I could setup my PC as workgroup as well as virtual PC but the custom app
has issues with non domain splitting of application and database server using
workgroups as well as I would have to change it back to my work domain each
time if I am at my work.


I have the following questions:
- Could anyone who use SQL Server give me a solution to my problem. Is there
anyway to make a external USB  drive be seen as by SQL Server on that image
as a local drive?

- I am using Virtual PC client. Could Virtual Server provide me with a
solution?

-	Does VMWare perhaps see a USB drive as a local drive in the image itself
so I can use that instead?

Thanks

Virtual PC and SQL Server Issue - can't use USB drive as local - Mark Rae

I don't believe so...


I don't believe so...


I believe it does...


--
http://www.markrae.net

Virtual PC and SQL Server Issue - can't use USB drive as local - Sylvain Lafontaine

You're right about SQL-Server beeing able to connect only with a local
drive.  One possible solution would be to go with VMWare.  I think that the
version 5.5 of VMWare offers support for USB 1.1 but that the next version
(6.0) will offer support for USB 2.0.  You could also use softwares like USB
over TCP/IP but you will have to pay for these specialised drivers and if I
were you, I would prefer to pay for VMWare 6.0 than to pay for a USB driver
over TCP/IP.

In your case, to overcome the domain limitation and the fact that databases
files are outside of the virtual machine, one possible solution would be to
set up a local instance of SQL-Server inside the VM as a proxy linked to the
external SQL-Server running on the host.  Never worked this myself but this
trick is now often used for people willing to communicate from a SQL-Server
client running on 64 bit mode to a server running exclusively in 32 bit mode
(for example, you want to link/access an Access database from SQL-Server).
See for an exemple:

http://gorm-braarvig.blogspot.com/2005/11/access-database-from-sql-200564.html

One other possibility would be to use SVS from Altiris Juice to give you the
possibility of easily switching between multiple versions of your custom
applications directly on your physical machine.  Personally, this is the
solution that I would try first in your case.

--
Sylvain Lafontaine, ing.
MVP - Technologies Virtual-PC
E-mail: sylvain aei ca (fill the blanks, no spam please)