Dell PowerEdge R720 User Manual

Page 2 - ii

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i ii This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any k...

Page 3 - iii; Contents; Tables

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i iii Contents Executive summary ..................................................................................................... 4 Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Fast Track reference a...

Page 4 - Executive summary

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 4 Executive summary Dell™ and Microsoft®, in cooperation, provide guidelines and design principles to assist customers in designing and implementing a balanced configuration for Microsoft SQL Se...

Page 5 - Recommended reference architectures with Solution IDs; Reference Architecture

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 5 to the traditional row-based approach. This technology enables better compression rates within the database, which is very beneficial for data warehouses because of the huge amount of data han...

Page 6 - Single server reference architecture

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 6 Single server reference architecture Figure 1 depicts the single server reference architecture. Table 2 lists the details of the configuration. Single server reference architecture Figure 1. S...

Page 7 - Highly available reference architecture; 6 per Server

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 7 Highly available reference architecture For achieving high availability for the database, we recommend using Microsoft Database Clustering. Using Microsoft clustering services, one database se...

Page 8 - Dell PowerEdge R720 server

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 8 Disks 48* 146G, 6Gbps 15k SAS drives Network Switch 2 * PowerConnect 8024 Operating System Windows 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition Clustering Software Microsoft Windows Clustering Database Soft...

Page 9 - Reference architecture configuration tuning details; PowerVault MD3620i storage tuning

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 9 PowerVault MD3620i iSCSI storage arrays PowerVault MD3620i storage arrays support 2.5 inch 6Gbps SAS disks, which enable better backend performance. MD3620i supports up to two controllers. Eac...

Page 10 - Enable Jumbo Frames on all storage iSCSI host ports; Enabling Jumbo frames on storage iSCSI host ports; Enable High Performance Tier feature on MD3620i; Premium Features and Features Pack information

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 10 Enable Jumbo Frames on all storage iSCSI host ports Jumbo frames need to be enabled on all four storage iSCSI host ports and the MTU size should be set to 9000 bytes/frame. This can be done u...

Page 11 - Enabling storage High Performance Tier(Turbo Mode); Set the Storage Cache Block Size to 32KB; Cache block size is set in the Change Cache Settings window; Modifying storage cache block size

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 11 Enabling storage High Performance Tier(Turbo Mode) Figure 5. Set the Storage Cache Block Size to 32KB In this specific Fast Track configuration, Dell recommends setting the storage cache bloc...

Page 12 - Set the virtual disk segment size to 256KB; Customize; Modifying the virtual disk segment size

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 12 Set the virtual disk segment size to 256KB For the recommended Fast Track configurations, Dell recommends setting the virtual disk segment size to 256KB. This benefits the large block sequent...

Page 14 - Storage system configuration; Physical disk array (RAID Groups for Data and Logs); Storage LUN layout

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 14 Storage system configuration The Fast Track Reference Architecture guidelines define three primary layers of storage configuration: • Physical disk array (RAID Groups for Data and Logs) • Ope...

Page 15 - Mount point naming and storage enclosure mapping; PRI

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 15 For Fast Track architectures, Dell recommends using mount points for the storage access rather than using drive letters. It is also important to assign the appropriate LUN/volume and mount po...

Page 16 - Reference architecture performance details; Performance metrics; Metric; Summary

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Configurations using PowerEdge R720 and PowerVault MD3620i 16 Reference architecture performance details Table 5 shows the performance numbers reported for the recommended reference configuration. Performance metrics Table 5. Metric Value Description FT...