Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Data Warehouse Fast Track using HPE MSA 2042 FC

Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Data Warehouse Fast Track using HPE MSA 2042 FC HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server Technical white paper

Technical white paper Contents Executive summary... 3 Introduction... 3 Solution overview... 3 Configuring the HPE MSA 2042... 4 Configuring Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2... 7 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server 2016... 10 Data Warehouse Fast Track Certification results... 12 Solution components... 13 HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Server... 13 HPE MSA 2042 Storage... 14 HPE StoreFabric SN1200E 16 Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter... 15 HPE StoreFabric SN6000B Fibre Channel Switch... 16 Best practices and configuration guidance for the solution... 16 Server configuration... 16 Storage configuration... 16 Microsoft SQL Server 2016 DWFT primary metrics... 16 Microsoft SQL Server 2016 DWFT secondary metrics... 17 Capacity and sizing... 17 Summary... 17 Glossary... 18 Appendix A: Bill of materials... 19 Resources and additional links... 20 RA-specific links... 20 Microsoft resources... 20 General HPE links... 20

Technical white paper Page 3 Executive summary The objective of this Reference Architecture (RA) is to highlight the customer benefits of deploying HPE MSA 2042 Storage in a Microsoft SQL Server 2016 data warehouse (DW) environment. HPE MSA 2042 provides the storage foundation that is easily managed, highly affordable, and highly scalable. As the business expands, the number of supported servers and total capacity can be increased to adapt to changing business needs. Microsoft SQL Server 2016 deployments with data warehouse/business intelligence (DW/BI) workloads have much more read activity than write activity, predominantly with reads during queries and heavy writes during loads. Though both queries and loads are important when designing a balanced DW solution, there is generally more sensitivity to performance during query analysis than during data loads, which can be done in bulk increments. Thus, the primary design criterion for a DW/BI deployment is performance specifically the throughput that can be achieved through the storage subsystem with the ultimate goal being to achieve a balance of compute and storage resources. The HPE MSA 2042 can achieve and maintain baseline levels of scalable performance for DW workloads requiring sequential data access. Target audience The information in this document is intended for IT planners, architects, DBAs, CIOs, CTOs, and business intelligence (BI) users with an interest in options for their BI applications and the factors that affect those options. Document purpose The purpose of this document is to describe a Reference Architecture, highlighting recognizable benefits to technical audiences. This RA supports Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Data Warehouse Fast Track Certification and describes testing performed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in April 2017. Introduction The Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Data Warehouse Fast Track Reference Architecture (DWFT) provides a framework based on a balanced approach to implement a symmetric multiprocessor-based architecture (SMP). The goal of the DWFT RA is to achieve an efficient resource balance between the database processing capabilities of Microsoft SQL Server 2016 and the hardware throughput, using proven performance and scalable data warehouse workloads. This RA is based on the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server connected to an HPE MSA 2042 storage array using 16 Gb Fibre Channel. The configuration is optimized for DW workloads and is rated for up to 29 TB of compressed data. A full benchmark consists of two primary packages, IO Saturation and CPU Saturation. Each package was processed at 12 and 24 concurrent sessions or streams of queries against the row store and the column store. Solution overview This RA describes the DWFT solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2016. The solution includes the HPE DL380 Gen9 server connected using Fibre Channel to the HPE MSA 2042. Figure 1 shows the DWFT environment.

Technical white paper Page 4 Figure 1. DWFT Test environment Configuring the HPE MSA 2042 The HPE MSA 2042 used in this RA uses a dual-controller configuration with two additional D2700 drive enclosures. The HPE MSA 2042 was filled with 70 HPE 600GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5 in DP enterprise hard disk drives and 4 HPE MSA 400GB SAS SSD. Figure 2 shows the HPE MSA 2042 system view from the Storage Management Utility.

Technical white paper Page 5 Figure 2. Front view of the HPE MSA 2042 from the Storage Management Utility Table 1 shows the disk group configurations on the MSA 2042. Seven disk groups were created for this DWFT test. Table 1. MSA 2042 Disk Group Configuration disk group Pool RAID Class Disk Type Size (gb) # Disks dga01 A RAID10 Virtual SAS (Standard) 4793.9 16 dga02 A RAID10 Virtual SAS (Standard) 4793.9 16 dgb01 B RAID10 Virtual SAS (Standard) 4793.9 16 dgb02 B RAID10 Virtual SAS (Standard) 4793.9 16 rca1 A NRAID Virtual ssas (Read Cache) 797.1 2 log log RAID6 Linear SAS (Standard) 1798.5 6 rcb1 B NRAID Virtual ssas (Read Cache) 797.1 2 Figure 3 shows the volume created on Pool A of the HPE MSA 2042 system.

Technical white paper Page 6 Figure 3. Volume on Pool A of the HPE MSA 2042 The disks were configured into RAID 10 disk groups formatted in 64k chunks. Each disk group consists of 16 disks as shown in Table 1. The data is striped across the 16 disks. Figure 2 shows the assignment of each disk to either Pool A or Pool B. Figure 4 shows the physical drives assigned to the dga01 disk group from the Storage Management Utility.

Technical white paper Page 7 Figure 4. Disk group dga01 Configuring Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 This section describes the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 tuning options selected for this DWFT RA. Configuration information covered includes: Windows volumes Multipathing (MPIO) policy Power plan BIOS configuration Windows volumes The disk groups created in the HPE MSA 2042 are mounted as Windows volumes on the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server. DiskPart was used to create primary partitions aligned to 1024 KB. The NTFS were created with 64K units. The database files were spread over the two mount points. There were also two tempdb files, one on each of the mount points except the mount point for the logs. One mount point is connected to Pool A and the other connected to Pool B. Multipathing (MPIO) policy The MPIO policy used on the volumes that have the SQL Server database and tempdb files is Round Robin with Subset. The Round Robin with Subset policy executes the Round Robin policy only on paths designated as active or optimized. The nonactive or nonoptimized paths will be tried on a Round Robin approach upon failure of all active or optimized paths.

Technical white paper Page 8 Figure 5. MPIO policy Power plan The power profile setting used for this RA was the High Performance option, as shown in Figure 6. This option favors performance, which may use more energy. Figure 6. Power options

Technical white paper Page 9 BIOS configuration Hyper-Threading was enabled, as shown in Figure 7. Figure 7. Hyper-Threading Turbo Boost Technology was enabled, as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8. Turbo Boost Technology HPE Power Profile was set to Balanced Power and Performance, as shown in Figure 9. Figure 9. Power-Profile

Technical white paper Page 10 Configuring Microsoft SQL Server 2016 This section describes the settings used in running the DWFT tests. Resource Governor settings The Resource Governor is a feature that can be used to manage SQL Server workloads and system resource consumption. This feature enables the user to specify limits on the amount of CPU, physical IO, and memory that incoming application requests can use. Figure 10 shows the Resource Governor settings used during these tests. Figure 10. Resource Governor settings SQL Server MAXDOP setup The Maximum Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP) controls the number of logical cores that the SQL Server uses for the parallel execution of a query. Figure 11 shows the MAXDOP value used. Figure 11. SQL Server MAXDOP setup

Technical white paper Page 11 SQL Server memory settings Figure 12 shows that 118000 MB of the available memory was allocated to the SQL Server. Figure 12. SQL Server memory settings

Technical white paper Page 12 Data Warehouse Fast Track Certification results Figure 13. DWFT Certification

Technical white paper Page 13 Solution components The components described in this section were used to perform the testing for this solution. The following components provided the foundation to achieve an optimal storage solution that are key to help you achieve a successful deployment in your own environment. HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Server HPE ProLiant servers deliver industry-leading compute innovation. Building on 25 years of proven features and functions, the HPE ProLiant portfolio is designed to improve cost savings while providing more compute per watt per dollar to meet the new demands of today s marketplace. This solution is based on the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Server, which provides exceptional performance and value in a 2U form factor, offering various processor, memory, disk, and networking configuration options. Figure 14. HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Server The HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server offers the perfect solution for the dynamic compute requirements of both growing small businesses and demanding data centers. The HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server offers many key features and benefits. Features Intel Xeon E5-2600v3 processor family 24 total DIMM slots (12 per processor), 4 channels per processor, 1.5 TB maximum capacity DDR4 Registered (RDIMM) or Load Reduced (LRDIMM) SmartMemory Up to 26 small form factor (SFF) or 15 large form factor (LFF) hard drives Up to 6 PCIe 3.0 slots HPE Smart Storage solution HPE ilo Management Engine

Technical white paper Page 14 Table 2 shows the configuration of the HPE DL380 Gen9 server used in this DWFT certification. The HPE DL380 Gen9 server can support two processors. This certification used one processor. The remaining socket can be populated with a similar processor model for future expansion of the solution. Table 2. HPE DL380 Gen9 server configuration Quantity Description 1 HPE DL380 Gen9 E5-2698v3 FIO Kit 8 HPE 32GB 4Rx4 PC4-2133P-L Kit 3 HPE 1.2TB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in SFF HDD 2 HPE 450GB 12G SAS 15K 2.5in SC ENT HDD 2 HPE SN1200E 16Gb 2P FC HBA HPE MSA 2042 Storage The HPE MSA 2042 shown in Figure 15 is the next-generation entry-level array. Designed for small- and medium-size companies, it features the latest in functionality and host-connect technology, and offers an excellent price and performance. The HPE MSA 2042 is ideal for companies with small budgets or limited IT expertise. Larger companies with departmental or remote requirements can also use the HPE MSA 2042. Each solution using the HPE MSA 2042 deploys easily and securely, provides lower management costs, and drives rapid return on investment (ROI) through efficient storage consolidation. Features Simple: Flexible architecture. Easy to set up. Easy to manage: Choice of 8 Gb/16 Gb FC, 1 Gb/10 GbE iscsi and 6 Gb/12 Gb SAS to match the customer environment configuration. The HPE MSA 2042 offers single-controller models for low initial investment, or dual controllers for higher data protection. The FC controller allows resource sharing between different departments with the most cost-effective protocol. A wide choice of drive types delivers a high ROI. The HPE MSA 2042 offers a choice of drives: high-performance and high-speed SSD drives, enterprise-class SAS, and SAS Midline drives. The array head comes with either 12 or 24 drive bays, able to simultaneously accommodate all three drive types. Start small and grow in number of supported servers and total capacity adaptable to changing needs: The HPE MSA 2042 enables customers to grow their storage as demands increase, up to a raw capacity of 960 TB with 10 TB LFF Midline drives. The HPE MSA 2042 can support eight LFF enclosures supporting 96 drives or eight SFF enclosures utilizing 199 drives. Single or dual controllers accommodate any budget. Powerful new controllers and 6 GB of read/write cache (4 GB Data cache, 2 GB System Cache) each provide support for up to 64 hosts. The 16 Gb Fibre Channel provides users with fast, reliable, and affordable access to their data. With 1,024 LUNs and maximum volume size of 64 TB, the HPE MSA 2042 has more than sufficient LUN flexibility for a wide variety of configuration choices. Comprehensive data protection in an easy to manage SAN environment: Reduce risk of IT failure with dual-active and active controllers, dual-ported drives, and redundant hardware components. For increased data protection, the HPE MSA 2042 comes standard with 64 snapshot and Volume Copy cloning capability enabled. Snapshots can be optionally increased to 512 snaps, and all HPE MSA 2042 controller models support the Remote Snap replication software option. Reduce time-to-operation with easy and secure deployment. Operator errors are reduced, resulting in less downtime and data loss, while increasing customer satisfaction. The HPE MSA 2042 supports data-in-place upgrades, protecting the user s investment in JBODs and drives, enhancing performance and functionality.

Technical white paper Page 15 Figure 15. HPE MSA 2042 HPE StoreFabric SN1200E 16 Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter The HPE StoreFabric SN1200E 16 Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter (HBA) is a critical element of this DWFT environment to improve storage performance. The HPE StoreFabric SN1200E delivers the high bandwidth, low latency, and high IOPs to meet any application requirements, from online transaction processing and data warehousing. Emulex s Dynamic Multicore Architecture can dynamically apply all ASIC resources to any port that needs it, delivering performance when and where it is needed. Supporting higher virtual machine density on powerful host servers, the HPE StoreFabric SN1200E 16 Gb HBAs delivers increased ROI on enabling more applications and virtual machines to run on a single server and I/O port without impacting SLAs. The 16 Gb FC HBA is backward compatible with 8 and 4 Gb FC storage networks to protect legacy investments. The HPE StoreFabric SN1200E FC HBA is available in two configurations: 16 Gb Single-Port Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter 16 Gb Dual-Port Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter The HPE StoreFabric SN1200E 16 Gb Host Bus Adapters provides near limitless scalability to support increased virtual machine (VM) density with 2x more on-chip resources and bandwidth than previous offerings. This FC HBA also improves the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) enduser experience with low-latency features providing noticeable improvements during boot storms (degradation of service that occurs when a significant number of end users boot up within a very narrow time frame and overwhelm the network). Management and installation is simplified with the OneCommand Manager plugin for VMware vcenter server. The HPE StoreFabric SN1200E 16Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters are designed to support emerging NVM Express (NVMe) over Fibre Channel storage networks. The FC HBA provides latest security features that averts unauthorized access to the HBA firmware and T10 Protection Information (T10-PI) data integrity with high-performance hardware offload provides data protection from the server to the storage array.

Technical white paper Page 16 Figure 16. HPE StoreFabric SN1200E 16Gb Fibre Channel HBA HPE StoreFabric SN6000B Fibre Channel Switch The HPE StoreFabric SN6000B Fibre Channel Switch meets the demand of customer environments by delivering market-leading 16 Gb Fibre Channel technology and performance. The HPE SN6000B Switch is configurable in 24, 36, or 48 ports and supports 4, 8, 10, or 16 Gbps speeds in a 1U package. In this configuration, HPE SN6000B was used for SAN connectivity between the HPE DL380 Gen9 server and the HPE MSA 2042 storage. Figure 17. HPE StoreFabric SN6000B Fibre Channel Switch Best practices and configuration guidance for the solution Server configuration The HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 servers used in this solutions was configured as follows: The server is configured with 256 GB of memory with only 118 GB allocated to SQL Server 2016. The server can support a maximum of two processors but for this test only one was installed. Two dual port 16 Gb Fibre Channel HBAs were installed and used to connect to the Fibre Channel switch. Storage configuration The HPE MSA 2042 storage used in the solution was configured as follows: HPE MSA 2042 with two HPE D2700 disk enclosures Four Fibre Channel ports per controller, each connected to the Fibre Channel switch (70) 600 GB SAS HDDs were used for storing the database, logs, and tempdb (4) 400 GB SAS SSDs were used for Read-Cache. (2) 400GB SSDs per controller Volume virtualization was used when creating the virtual pools, virtual disk groups, and virtual volumes Microsoft SQL Server 2016 DWFT primary metrics The certification process depends on the calculation of four primary and eight secondary metrics. The following are the four primary metrics:

Technical white paper Page 17 Related User Data Capacity (TB): A calculated value based on the Row Store Relative Throughput, the Column Store Relative Throughput, available storage, and the physical system memory. The calculation assumes a compression ratio of 5:1. Maximum User Data Capacity: Calculated value based on the total disk capacity of all disks allocated to primary storage. Assumes a 5:1 compression ratio. Row Store Relative Throughput: Percent ratio calculation of the Row Store throughput to the validated sample DWFT Row Store throughput. Column Store Relative Throughput: Percent ratio calculation of the Column Store throughput to the validated sample DWFT Column Store throughput. Microsoft SQL Server 2016 DWFT secondary metrics Table 3 shows the secondary row metrics and Table 4 shows the secondary column metrics used for the DWFT certification process. Table 3. Data Warehouse Fast Track secondary row metrics Secondary row metric Measured Throughput (Queries/Hr/TB) Measured Scan Rate Physical (Mbps) Measured Scan Rate Logical (Mbps) Measured I/O Throughput (Mbps) Measured CPU Utilization (Avg.) (%) Description Calculated from the measured number of Row Store benchmark queries completed during the measurement interval, normalized to a 1 TB database, expressed in Queries/Hr/TB. Measured physical I/O reads from disk during the measurement interval of the benchmark, expressed in Mbps. Measured user query throughput which includes reads from RAM/buffer cache, expressed in Mbps Calculated midpoint of the measured Scan Rate Physical and the measured Scan Rate Logical, expressed in Mbps. Average CPU utilization measured during the measurement interval of the benchmark, expressed in percentage of total CPU. Table 4. Data Warehouse Fast Track secondary column metrics Secondary row metric Measured Throughput (Queries/Hr/TB) Measured Scan Rate Physical (Mbps) Measured CPU Utilization (Avg.) (%) Description Calculated from the measured number of Column Store benchmark queries completed during the measurement interval, normalized to a 1 TB database, expressed in Queries/Hr/TB. Measured physical I/O reads from disk during the measurement interval of the benchmark, expressed in Mbps. Average CPU utilization measured during the measurement interval of the benchmark, expressed in percentage of total CPU. For more information on Microsoft SQL Server 2016 DWFT, refer to http://microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/data-warehouse-fast-track. Capacity and sizing This solution provides user rated data capacity guidance for a data warehouse environment based on storage performance. The capacity and sizing are determined after running Microsoft s Fast Track Data Warehouse tests. These results are then sent to Microsoft review and validation. Once the results are approved, Microsoft issues a DWFT Certificate for the tested configuration. Summary This solution, in partnership with Microsoft, enables customers to deploy a tested, reliable, and validated DWFT Reference Architecture configuration. The solution combines the industry-leading HPE ProLiant server (DL380 Gen9) with the entry-level array (HPE MSA 2042) to provide a Microsoft-certified SQL Server 2016 DWFT solution. With a rated user capacity of 29 TB using spinning disks, this configuration can expand storage capacity as the customer s data warehouse requirements increase. This solution also increases performance and capacity, and is one of the few DWFT solutions using hard disk drives (HDDs) to store the data and logs. The HPE MSA 2042 can expand to support up to 7 drive trays, either small form factor (SFF) or large form factor (LFF). The SFF tray can support up to 25 drives; the LFF tray can support up to 12 drives each. The HPE MSA 2042 can also support 8 Gb/16 Gb Fibre Channel, 1 GbE/10 GbE iscsi or 6 Gb/12 Gb SAS connections to the host. The DWFT certificate (Figure 13) highlights how Hewlett Packard Enterprise can deliver a DWFT Reference Architecture for Microsoft SQL Server 2016.

Technical white paper Page 18 Glossary Table 5 provides a short list of common terms used in this paper. Table 5. Glossary of common terms Term Description Disk group Group of one or more disks inside the MSA 2042 DWFT Data Warehouse Fast Track FC Fibre Channel iscsi Internet Small Computer System Interface PDU Power distribution unit SAS Serial Attached SCSI SCSI LUN SCSI Logical Unit Number, which is used with FC devices, along with their World Wide Name (WWN) for identification

Technical white paper Page 19 Appendix A: Bill of materials Major components used in testing this DWFT RA are listed here. The list is not exhaustive, but provides guidance. For example, power distribution units (PDUs) and interconnecting cables are not listed. Often these items are present, or ordered as needed. Table 6 lists the hardware components. Table 6. Hardware bill of materials Qty Part Number Description HPE ProLiant Server 1 719064-B21 HPE DL380 Gen9 8-SFF CTO Server 1 781913-L21 HPE DL380 Gen9 E5-2698v3 FIO Kit 8 726722-B21 HPE 32GB 4Rx4 PC4-2133P-L Kit 3 718162-B21 HPE 1.2TB 6G SAS 10k 2.5in DP ENT SC HDD 2 759210-B21 HPE 450GB 12G SAS 15K 2.5in SC ENT HDD 2 Q0L14A HPE SN1200E 16Gb 2P FC HBA 1 629135-B22 HPE Ethernet 1GbE 4P 331FLR Adptr 1 719073-B21 HPE DL380 G9 3Slot PCIe Rsr Kit 1 733660-B21 HPE 2U SFF Easy Install Rail Kit 2 720478-B21 HPE 500W FS Plat Ht Plg Pwr Supply Kit 755996-B21 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 HPE MSA 2042 Storage 1 HPE MSA 2042 SAS DC SFF Storage 2 AJ941A-0D1 HPE D2700 Disk Enclosure 70 C8S58A-0D1 HPE MSA 600GB SAS 10K 2.5in DP ENT HDD 4 N9X95A HPE MSA 400GB 12G SAS MU 2.5in SSD HPE StoreFabric SN6000B Fibre Channel Switch 1 C8R08A HPE StoreFabric SN6000B Bundled FC Switch

Technical white paper Page 20 Resources and additional links RA-specific links HPE MSA Storage, http://www.hpe.com/storage/msa HPE MSA 2042 SAN Storage, https://www.hpe.com/us/en/storage/content/hpe/base/blueprint/product-catalog/storage/diskstorage/pip.1009161293 HPE MSA 2042 QuickSpecs, https://www.hpe.com/h20195/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c05183822 HPE MSA 2042 Data Sheet, https://www.hpe.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/4aa6-6915enn.pdf The New HPE MSA 2042: What a Little Flash Can Do, http://community.hpe.com/t5/around-the-storage-block/the-new-hpe-msa-2042- What-a-Little-Flash-Can-Do/ba-p/6888922#.V8Saek32YaI HPE StoreFabric Storage Networking, http://hpe.com/storage/storefabric HPE StoreFabric SN6000B Fibre Channel Switch, https://www.hpe.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/c04111492.pdf Microsoft resources Microsoft SQL Server, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/sql-server Microsoft Data Warehouse Fast Track SQL Server 2016, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/data-warehouse-fast-track General HPE links HPE Information Library, http://h17007.www1.hpe.com/us/en/storage/info-library/index.aspx HPE Services, https://www.hpe.com/us/en/services.html HPE Reference Architectures, hpe.com/info/ra HPE Servers, hpe.com/servers HPE Storage, hpe.com/storage HPE Networking, hpe.com/networking HPE Technology Consulting Services, hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html To help us improve our documents, please provide feedback at hpe.com/contact/feedback. Sign up for updates Copyright 2017 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Intel, Xeon, Intel Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other third-party trademark(s) is/are property of their respective owner(s). a00018138enw, June 2017, Rev. 1