title: Load Balance SQL Server
body: <p>This is just an attempt to improve the performance of sql server.  </p>
  
  <p>We have a single Windows Server 2008 server with an instance of Sql Server 2008 Enterprise edition. The binary files for SQL Server, The OS files, MDF files, LDF files all reside on a single disk.  </p>
  
  <p>In the past we used NLB to provide load balancing for IIS. We had 2 Windows Server 2008 machines and the same website was configured on both the 2 machines and there was a separate machine providing data to the websites.Users would access the virtual IP address and depending on the current load on each node, the cluster would divide the traffic.   </p>
  
  <p>Now I want to know if I can try the same for load balancing SQL Server traffic.What I plan is:  </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Install 2 instance of SQL server on 2 separate machines.</li>
  <li>Place the MDF, LDF files on a shared media such as SAN, RAID 5 which
  are visible to both the two instances and attach the MDF and LDF on 
  both the two instances.</li>
  <li>Make a cluster out of the two nodes and let the application access
  the cluster IP address.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>In this case, just as IIS, the cluster would divide the traffic among the 2 nodes and since a single MDF and LDF is being accessed, I guess there wont be any synchronization problem.  </p>
  
  <p>My question is:  </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Will this actually improve the performace of SQL server ?</li>
  <li>Will it have any other implications (we use a lot of transactions in
  the code)?</li>
  </ol>