DELL Reference Configuration Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Fast Track Data Warehouse

Transcription

1 DELL Reference Configuration Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Fast Track Warehouse A Dell Technical Configuration Guide base Solutions Engineering Dell Product Group Anthony Fernandez Jisha J

2 Executive Summary Warehouses provide the foundation for Business Intelligence systems, such as Analysis and Reporting Services, which are critical for an organization to be able to scan through very large amounts of data as efficiently as possible. Warehouse configurations typically suffer from design principles that were originally intended for online transaction processing systems (OLTP). As the amount of data grows, so do scan times that affect the overall business time to gather critical information. Dell and Microsoft provide a set of guidelines and design principles called Warehouse Fast Track (DWFT) to help customers design and implement balanced configurations specifically for Warehouse databases providing a hardware balanced approach and predictable out-of-box performance. This reference configuration describes the architecture design principles to achieve a balanced configuration for Dell PowerEdge R710 and Dell EMC AX4-5 Fibre Channel Storage. THIS WHITE PAPER 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 KIND Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell. Dell, the DELL logo, and the DELL badge, PowerEdge, and PowerConnect are trademarks of Dell Inc. EMC, CLARiiON, and PowerPath are registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. Microsoft and SQL Server are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own. July 2010 ii

3 Contents Executive Summary... ii Introduction... 2 Audience and Scope... 2 Microsoft Fast Track Warehouse Overview... 2 Dell Microsoft Fast Track Warehouse Reference Architecture... 2 Recommendations and Best Practices... 5 Conclusion References Tables Table 1. Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture List... 3 Table 2. Dell PowerEdge R7100 Configuration Details... 4 Figures Figure 1. Dell Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture... 3 Figure 2. Dell Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture With High Availability... 4 Figure 3. Reference Architecture Redundant Fibre Channel Switches... 5 Figure 4. Reference Architecture With Clustering... 6 Figure 5. Maximum Bandwidth Memory Configuration... 7 Figure 6. Balanced Performance Memory Configuration... 8 Figure 7. Internal Storage Configuration... 8 Figure 8. Dell EMC AX4-5 Chassis... 9 Figure 9. Disk Group Layout Figure 10. Disk Layout Figure 11. Storage Controller Assignment Figure 12. Switch and Zone Configuration

4 Introduction This reference configuration describes a reference architecture to implement a Microsoft Fast Track Warehouse utilizing the Dell PowerEdge R710 and Dell EMC AX4-5 Storage. The goal of the Microsoft Fast Track program is to define a methodology to build a balanced and optimized hardware and software configuration specifically for Microsoft SQL Server Warehouse deployments. Utilizing a building block approach, a Microsoft Fast Track solution offers a cost effective and proven platform that has been tested and optimized to offer customers faster time to deploy and configure a data warehouse infrastructure. A data warehouse is the central component in a Business Intelligence solution that stores large quantities of data and information. As data continues to grow at a fast pace, optimizing data retrieval is crucial for organizations to maintain service level agreements (SLAs). Microsoft Fast Track provides a framework which allows customers to select a reference architecture that has been designed with those principals in mind that best fit their needs, the amount of data, and their performance requirements. Audience and Scope This reference configuration is intended for customers, partners, solution architects, storage administrators, and database administrators who are evaluating, planning, or deploying a balanced Warehouse solution. The scope is limited to the main repository of data or warehouse and the balanced configuration thereof. Other systems that utilize the Warehouse as a source of data, such as Analysis Services or Reporting Services, are not part of the scope of Microsoft Fast Track. Microsoft Fast Track Warehouse Overview The Microsoft Fast Track Warehouse initiative provides a framework to build and deploy a balanced configuration for a SQL Server Warehouse. The initiative provides guidelines and best practices to configure software and hardware to achieve optimal cost and performance. Microsoft Fast Track utilizes a building block approach focused on balanced configurations that has been tested and validated for Warehouse workloads. Dell Microsoft Fast Track Warehouse Reference Architecture This reference configuration provides detailed configuration information to set up and deploy a Warehouse utilizing Microsoft Fast Track guidelines on the Dell PowerEdge R710 and Dell EMC AX4-5 Fibre Channel Storage. Table 1, as follows, lists recommended hardware that has been tested and selected for a balanced configuration as published by Microsoft in the Fast Track Reference Configuration Guide listed in the References section of this reference configuration. This reference configuration focuses on the Dell PowerEdge R710 with two Dell EMC AX4-5 Fibre Channel Arrays for a capacity range of 4TB to 8TB of compressed data. 2

5 Table 1. Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture List Server CPU CPU Cores SAN Dell PowerEdge R710 (2) Intel Xeon 8 (2) EMC Nehalem Quad Core 2.66GHz Drive Count (16) 300GB 15K FC Initial Capacity 4TB Maximum Capacity 8TB Figure 1 shows the hardware components that comprise the Warehouse solution published by Microsoft. Note that component selection such as Fibre Channel HBAs, Fibre Channel Switches, and Networking Switches are not listed in the Microsoft Fast Track Reference Configuration Guide. The following configuration was deployed in the Dell Labs. Figure 1. Dell Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture Dell PowerConnect 54XX Series Dell PowerEdge R710 Two Dual-Port 8Gb Fibre Channel HBAs Brocade SW200E Fibre Channel Switch Dell EMC AX4-5 Fibre Channel Storage 3

6 Figure 2 shows the reference architecture configured with High Availability. Figure 2. Dell Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture With High Availability Dell PowerConnect Series Public Switch Dell PowerConnect Series Private Switch Dell PowerEdge R710 Cluster Node 1 Dell PowerEdge R710 Cluster Node 2 Dual Brocade SW200E Fibre Channel Switches Dell EMC AX4-5 Fibre Channel Storage Table 2. Dell PowerEdge R7100 Configuration Details Server PowerEdge R710 CPU (2) Quad Core Intel Xeon X GHz 8MB Cache, 6.4GT/s Intel QPI, Turbo, HT, 95W Number of Cores 8 Memory 48GB RAM (6x8GB PCI-E Slots PCI-E Riser with two x4 Gen 2 slots (Slots 1 and 2) Internal Storage Controller PERC6/I or H MB Cache Internal Drives (2) 73GB 6Gpbs SAS 15K HDD (6) 300GB 6Gbps SAS 15K HDD* * Various sizes can be configured. Network Adapters Two Embedded Broadcom 5709C Dual-Port Gigabit Ethernet (four ports total) Network Switch Dell PowerConnect 54XX Series FC HBA (2) Emulex LPe E (8Gb Dual-Port FC HBA) Or (2) QLogic QLE2562 (8Gb Dual-Port FC HBA) FC Switch (2) Brocade SW200E (8 Ports enabled each)* FC Storage * High Availability Configuration requires two FC switches. (2) Dell EMC AX4-5 Fibre Channel Arrays 4

7 Recommendations and Best Practices This section details the recommendations and best practices for implementing a high performing Fast Track data warehouse on the latest Dell PowerEdge Server R710 and Dell EMC AX4-5F storage enclosure. In this section, the hardware based optimizations are given preference compared to the software and database parameters. base Availability Based on business requirements, it may be necessary to have a highly reliable and available database configuration with high performance for data warehousing. Dual Fibre Channel Switches provide path redundancy and availability. In addition, they provide the flexibility to add clustered nodes with Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) to provide server redundancy. The complete Dell Reference Architecture may be represented as in Figure 3, as follows, for Single Node configurations with redundant Fibre Channel switches. Figure 3. Reference Architecture Redundant Fibre Channel Switches Dell PowerEdge R710 Dual Emulex 8Gb HBAs Dual Brocade SW200E Fibre Channel Switches SP B SP A SP B SP A Dell EMC AX4-5 FC Storage The Dell Microsoft Fast Track architecture with high availability MSCS may be depicted as in Figure 4, as follows. 5

8 Figure 4. Reference Architecture With Clustering Active Node MSCS clustered nodes Passive Node SP B SP A SP A SP A Figure 4 shows an active-passive SQL server configuration using Microsoft Clustering technology. Microsoft clustering enables the passive database node to host the database service if the primary database server (the active node) fails. This guarantees a highly available configuration at the database, HBA, network, and SAN layers. Server Server selection for Microsoft Fast Track implementations is based on the principals for building a balanced system from the storage to the server. Given the multicore capabilities of today s servers, a starting point to build a balanced configuration is based on the maximum CPU Core consumption rate (MCR) a system can process. Microsoft suggests 200MB/s per CPU core as a starting point to build a Fast Track configuration based on test results. The Dell PowerEdge R710 is a dense 2U server with dual socket Intel Xeon 5500 series Quad-Core processors, Intel s 5520 I/O Hub (IOH) with QuickPath Architecture, DDR3 memory, DIMM thermal sensors, PCI Express Generation 2, and dual-port embedded Gigabit Ethernet controllers. CPU The Microsoft Fast Track reference describes the balanced performance for the R710 with the Intel Xeon 5500 Series X GHz Quad-Core processor. Using a 200MB per second per Core of page-compressed data to determine the MCR of the 8 core system, the R710 would yield an MCR of 1.6GB/s. The MCR provides a starting point to determine the bandwidth from the storage to maximize the CPU capacity. This methodology helps define a watermark of performance when designing a balanced configuration free of bottlenecks throughout the data path, for example, storage spindles, storage controllers, SAN fabric, FC HBAs, and memory. 6

9 Memory Memory sizing for a Fast Track Warehouse configuration depends on the workload characteristics of data access. Microsoft recommends the minimum amount of memory required to drive the MCR or 200MB/s per core which is 4GB of RAM per Core. For an 8 Core system, 32GB would be the minimum. The R710 has three Memory Channels and up to 3 DIMMs per Channel. For configurations that require maximum bandwidth but do not necessarily benefit from capacity, it is recommended to configure the memory with 8GB RDIMMs in the following configuration. Figure 5 shows two sockets each displaying three channels with 3 DDR3 DIMMs per channel. With the 8GB DIMMs, only the first slot per channel is populated. This configuration provides maximum bandwidth with a total of 48GB of RAM. Figure 5. Maximum Bandwidth Memory Configuration A7 A4 A1 6 x 8GB DDR3 1333MHz Total RAM 48 GB B1 B4 B7 A8 A5 A2 B2 B5 B8 A9 A6 A3 Quad-Core Socket Quad-Core Socket 3 Memory Channels per Socket B3 B6 B9 DIMM Slots 10.6GB/s per Memory Channel For a balanced configuration that does not require higher capacities, 4GB DDR3 DIMMs offer a cost effective solution as shown in Figure 6 below. 7

10 Figure 6. Balanced Performance Memory Configuration A7 A4 A1 12 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz Total RAM 48 GB B1 B4 B7 A8 A5 A2 B2 B5 B8 A9 A6 A3 Quad-Core Socket Quad-Core Socket 3 Memory Channels per Socket B3 B6 B9 DIMM Slots 8.5 GB/s per Memory Channel Internal Storage Customers have a choice to select from two flavors of chassis for the R710 with up to eight 2.5 6Gbps SAS drives or up to six 3.5 6Gbps SAS drives. Figure 7, as follows, shows both chassis configured with the first two drives in a RAID 1 configuration for Operating System installation. The remaining drives are used for staging or for backup space. Depending on the space required, customers can configure the drives in the following two configurations. Figure 7. Internal Storage Configuration Space Configured: Operating System: 143GB Staging/Backup*: (4) 600GB Drives: 1.7TB (4) 450GB Drives: 1.3TB (4) 300GB Drives: 900GB (4) 146GB Drives: 400GB Space Configured: Operating System: 73GB Staging/Backup*: (6) 600GB Drives: 2.8TB (6) 300GB Drives: 1.4TB (6) 146GB Drives: 680GB *Space configured with RAID5 or other RAID types can be configured depending on space or performance requirements. 8

11 It is recommended to utilize the PERC/i or PERC H700 internal storage controller. This controller provides internal hardware RAID capabilities (0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60) and mixed RAID configurations, for example, RAID 1 for Operating System drives, and RAID5 or RAID10 for staging/backup. For configurations in which RAID 1 is sufficient for the staging/backup area, the SAS6/iR or H200 offers RAID 0 and RAID 1 capabilities. Note that the SAS6/i and H200 offer a maximum of two RAID 1 sets. base Microsoft has definite configuration guidelines and best practices for deploying a Warehouse using the Fast Track approach. This configuration includes minimum indexing, table partitioning, and table compression considerations. The major database settings that would enable the SQL Server database to be optimized for a sequential database workload may include the following: base startup parameters E : Increases the number of extends allocated to a database table T1117: Ensures the even growth of all files in the file group For the complete configuration guidelines, please refer to the Microsoft Fast Track Reference Configuration Guide listed in the References section of this reference configuration. Storage Attached Network The storage attached network (SAN) configuration plays a major role in the database performance. This section discusses storage Disk Group, Logical Unit () and file layout, switch and HBA cabling, and Multipath I/O configuration. Storage The Microsoft Fast Track Reference Configuration Guide provides the strict guidelines for creating the RAID configurations and storage s on the external storage array. In addition, the distribution of the storage s between the storage processors of the array plays a significant role in delivering the optimum output out of the array. Figure 8, as follows, shows the front and back of the chassis. Note that Disk 0 through Disk 3 contains software flares installed on the MBR. Figure 8. Dell EMC AX4-5 Chassis Front Back Figure 9 shows the physical Disk Group layout across both storage arrays. Microsoft specifies utilizing RAID1 mirrored sets for database data and Log files. Each AX4-5 is divided into four Disk Groups and one Log Disk Group per Array. 9

12 Figure 9. Disk Group Layout LOG Hot Spares LOG Hot Spares Figure 10, as follows, shows the layout recommendations. Two volumes (s) are carved out of each of the RAID groups created for data files, and a single utilizes the entire disk group for a Log file. Lab tests showed that the EMC storage processor is able to maximize performance per spindle within the mirrored set by dedicating a to a spindle. Figure 10. Disk Layout Log 1 Hot Spares Log 2 Hot Spares In this case, the storage processor (SP) is able to manage the requests to the backend disks in a more streamlined manner to reduce the overall seek time of both the mirrored member disks. This streamlining results in an overall improvement in the disk throughput. 10

13 Figure 11. Storage Controller Assignment SP A SP B Hot Spares Log 2 Hot Spares To ensure maximum performance, both s from the same Disk Group should be assigned to the same Storage Processor. The Log volumes in each of the arrays may be assigned to either SP A or SP B. Storage Cache Configuration The Dell EMC AX4-5 has a total of 2GB of cache, 1GB of cache per processor. Some performance gains may be achieved by configuring 100% of cache to writes during data load windows. Temporary files may also benefit from storage cache configuration. However, since tempdb files share the same spindles with database files, it is recommended to increase the available memory to allow sorts to happen in memory as opposed to disk which may affect the overall performance. For more in depth discussion of storage cache configuration recommendations, refer to Configuring cache memory for DW/DSS workloads in the following white paper at Switch and HBA Configuration The Microsoft Fast Track Reference Configuration Guide describes a basic approach for HBA-SAN configuration. Dell reference architecture proposes value additions at the SAN Configuration to provide availability to the Fast Track architecture. Several tests were conducted in Dell labs to determine the optimized SAN Configuration to complement the Fast Track concepts. The proposed Dell Microsoft Fast Track SAN Configuration may be represented as in Figure

14 Figure 12. Switch and Zone Configuration base Server HBA 1 HBA 2 SW1 Zone1 Zone2 SW2 B A B A StorageArray 1 StorageArray 2 The use of at least two switches to the setup adds high availability at the switch layer. Switch zoning should be configured properly to make sure that all the HBA ports are able to access the storage ports. In the proposed configuration, high availability is ensured at the HBA layer and the switch layer. In other words, the failure of a single HBA or switch will not result in downtime of the configuration. Multipathing Options and Settings Customers have the choice of implementing Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) or EMC PowerPath for storage connectivity and multipathing, depending on their preference and expertise. Both solutions are fully tested and supported by Dell Fast Track Solutions. Microsoft MPIO Microsoft references MPIO as the multipathing solution for fast track implementations as a fully integrated solution for external SAN connectivity. Note that the use of EMC PowerPath is required to initialize and format the external s presented to the Operating System as disks. When the disks have been fully configured, Microsoft MPIO can be utilized for multipathing. Microsoft recommends the use of the Round Robin with Subset function as the preferred load balancing policy. EMC PowerPath EMC PowerPath provides a number of load balancing policies for routing I/O requests. The default setting is the Clariion Optimized (ClarOpt) setting. ClarOpt processes I/O requests across multiple paths based on reads and writes. ClarOpt also allows users to define priority on specific paths. In lab testing, a 4-5% improvement was observed with the load balancing policy set to Least I/Os when compared with ClarOpt setting. This setting assigns I/Os to paths with the fewest number of requests in the queue. Dell recommends to experiment with various settings for a specific workload to find optimal performance. 12

15 Conclusion Microsoft Fast Track Architecture presents a balanced configuration of processor core and disk performance capabilities, optimized for a sequential workload. Dell, as an efficient hardware partner, adds value to the configuration by providing the best practices and recommendations at all the hardware layers. Following these recommendations will help ensure a complete balanced configuration with optimized performance specifically designed for a sequential workload. To summarize, Dell Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architecture provides the following value additions and advantages along with a powerful, high performing configuration: Best practices at all the hardware and software layers Tested and Validated Configuration with proven methodology High Availability at every level of the Fast Track configuration Dell and Microsoft together provide expertise at the hardware and software layers to design and build balanced reference architectures for Warehouse Fast Track deployments ensuring better out-ofbox performance. 13

16 References Dell SQL Server Solutions Dell Services Dell Support Microsoft Fast Track Warehouse An Introduction to Fast Track Warehouse Architectures Implementing a SQL Server Fast Track Warehouse Microsoft Fast Track Reference Configuration Guide Microsoft Dell Sheet 22C3F94B08E0/Dell%20Fast%20Track%202.0%20sheet.pdf Introduction to New Warehouse Scalability Features in SQL Server Best Practices for Warehousing with SQL Server