Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Architecture Using PowerEdge R720 and Compellent SC8000

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Architecture Using PowerEdge R720 and Compellent SC8000 This whitepaper describes the Dell Microsoft SQL Server Fast Track reference architecture configuration and performance results Vinod Kumar Dell Database Solutions Engineering Mike Matthews Dell Compellent Engineering

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 kind. 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, PowerVault, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and SQL Server are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States 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 disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. May 2013 Rev 1.0 ii

Contents Executive Summary... 4 Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Fast Track Reference Architectures... 4 What s New With Dell Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architectures... 4 Dell Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Architectures Using PowerEdge R720 and Compellent SC8000... 5 Single Server Reference Architecture... 6 Highly Available Reference Architecture... 7 Reference Architecture Hardware Component Details... 9 Reference Architecture Configuration and Tuning Details... 10 Additional Storage Considerations for the Highly Available (HA) Reference Architecture... 17 Reference Architecture Performance Details... 18 Summary... 19 Tables Table 1. Recommended reference architectures with Solution IDs... 5 Table 2. Single server reference architecture details... 6 Table 3. Highly available reference architecture details... 8 Table 4. Mount point naming and storage enclosure mapping... 15 Table 5. Fast Track performance metrics... 18 Figures Figure 1. Single server reference architecture... 6 Figure 2. Highly available reference architecture... 8 Figure 3. Cabling diagram... 11 Figure 4. Disk configuration... 12 Figure 5. Custom storage profile... 13 Figure 6. Storage Center volume details... 13 Figure 7. Windows power plan... 14 Figure 8. MPIO policy for data volumes... 16 Figure 9. MPIO policy for the transaction log volume... 16 iii

Executive Summary Dell and Microsoft, in cooperation, provide guidelines and principles to assist customers in designing and implementing a balanced configuration for Microsoft SQL Server data warehouse workloads to achieve out-of-the-box scalable performance. These database reference architectures enable each of the components in the database stack to provide optimal throughput to match the database capabilities of the specific setup. Dell 12 th generation servers, along with robust Dell Compellent SC8000 storage arrays, form efficient candidates for a high performing data warehouse solution. This white paper describes the architectural design principles and guidelines used to achieve an optimally balanced SQL Server data warehouse solution using Dell PowerEdge R720 and Compellent SC8000 storage arrays along with Microsoft SQL Server 2012. The performance numbers achieved for the reference configuration are also discussed in detail. Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server Fast Track Reference Architectures The objective behind the database Fast Track reference architectures is to provide tested and validated configurations and associated resources to help customers identify the right architecture and configuration for data warehouse solutions. The following are tangible benefits of following these recommended configuration best practices and guidelines: Accelerated data warehouse projects with pre-tested hardware and SQL Server configurations. Reduced hardware and maintenance costs by purchasing the right balanced hardware solution and optimizing it for a data warehouse workload. Reduced planning and setup costs leveraging the Certified Reference Architecture configurations. Predictable performance by configuring the system correctly and taking advantage of the tuning directions. The Fast Track reference architectures provide a balanced server, memory, network, and storage hardware configuration and avoid the risk of improperly designed and configured hardware systems. These guidelines ensure that the capability and throughput for the entire system is maximally utilized. Configurations are designed specifically for the data warehouse or Business Intelligence (BI) systems. For more information on Fast Track data warehouse architectures, visit msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/dd459146%28v=sql.100%29.aspx. What s New With Dell Microsoft Fast Track Reference Architectures Dell and Microsoft have refreshed the Fast Track reference architecture offerings with the latest technology advancements in database, server, and storage technology. Dell PowerEdge 12 th generation servers, Dell Compellent SC8000 storage arrays, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 are the latest additions to the list of reference architecture components. 4

Dell s 12 th generation server platforms, featuring enhanced onboard memory, storage, and processor speeds, have advanced features that boost data warehouse performance. The latest Intel Xeon E5 series processors, larger memory capacities, higher memory speed, and third generation PCI Express slots on the newer PowerEdge platforms ensure faster database throughput. Dell Compellent SC8000 storage arrays offer enterprise-class performance and reliability, intelligent automation, and seamless virtualization of storage with simplified storage management. Compellent Storage Center offers exceptional performance for both sequential and transactional applications with linear scalability as arrays are added. It delivers a modular and cost-effective solution that can be deployed in appropriate increments for medium and large businesses. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 comes with several exciting features which directly benefit database environments. One of these features is Columnstore Indexes, which impacts the data warehouse database configurations. This enables storing data in columnar fashion, in contrast 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 being handled. Columnstore Indexes also benefit common data warehousing queries such as filtering, aggregating, grouping, and star-join queries. For more information on Columnstore Indexes, see msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/gg492088.aspx. Microsoft Fast Track Data Warehouse 4.0 guidelines incorporate the benefit of Columnstore Indexes for improved query performance The Dell-Microsoft Fast Track reference architecture and configurations are engineered jointly by Dell and Microsoft. The hardware and software optimizations are tested by Dell and the performance results are cross-checked by Microsoft. This approach presents Faster time-to-value using integrated, balanced, and verified architectures. Dell Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Architectures Using PowerEdge R720 and Compellent SC8000 There are two different Fast Track reference architectures comprised of SQL Server 2012, PowerEdge R720 servers, and Compellent SC8000 storage arrays. Table 1 lists the reference architectures along with the assigned Solution IDs. Table 1. Recommended reference architectures with Solution IDs Reference Architecture Solution ID Single Server Reference Architecture 3166969 Highly Available Reference Architecture 3167011 The following sections describe the hardware and software configuration details for the reference architectures. 5

0 4 1 5 2 6 3 7 8 12 9 13 10 14 11 15 16 20 17 21 18 22 19 23 0 4 1 5 2 6 3 7 8 12 9 13 10 14 11 15 16 20 17 21 18 22 19 23 Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Reference Architecture Using PowerEdge R720 and Compellent SC8000 Single Server Reference Architecture Figure 1 illustrates the single server reference architecture with the major elements and Table 2 lists the configuration details. Figure 1. Single server reference architecture Public Network PowerEdge R720 Brocade 300 Brocade 300 2 x Brocade 300 Compellent SC8000 Compellent SC8000 2 x Compellent SC8000 3 x Compellent SC220 Table 2. Server component Server Processors Single server reference architecture details Description PowerEdge R720 2 x Intel Xeon CPUs E5-2690 @ 2.90GHz Total cores per socket 8 Total logical processors (HT enabled) Total installed memory 32 192GB @ 1600Mhz 6

Network adapters Host Bus Adapters Operating system Database software Storage component Controllers Disk enclosures Disk drives Minimum of one network adapter (1Gbps or 10Gbps based on requirements) Recommended to have more than one network adapter with load balancing configured 4 x dual port QLogic QLE2562 8Gb Fibre Channel Windows 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition SQL Server 2012 SP1 Enterprise Edition Description 2 x Compellent SC8000 (SCOS v6.2.2) 3 x Compellent SC220 72 x 300G, 6Gbps 15k 2.5" SAS drives SAN switches 2 x Brocade 300 Highly Available Reference Architecture For achieving high availability for the database, Microsoft Windows Failover Clustering is recommended. Using Microsoft clustering services, one database server is configured as the primary (active) server and the second server is configured as the secondary (passive) server. The secondary server should have exactly the same configuration as the primary server. Since the database is only active on a single server at any point of time, the performance of the database on the primary server (active) is comparable to the single server configuration (discussed earlier). Figure 2 illustrates the highly available reference architecture with the major elements. Table 3 lists the configuration details. 7

Figure 2. Highly available reference architecture Table 3. Server components Server Processors Total cores per socket Highly available reference architecture details Description 2 x PowerEdge R720 2 x Intel Xeon CPUs E5-2690 @ 2.90GHz per Server 8 per Server Total logical processors (HT Enabled) Total installed memory Network adapters Host Bus Adapters 32 per Server 192GB @ 1600 Mhz per Server Public Network: Minimum of two network adapters (1Gbps or 10Gbps based requirements) per server with load balancing configured. Private Network (Cluster): Minimum of one network adapter with 1Gbps (or more) connectivity per server. 4 x dual port QLogic QLE2562 8Gb Fibre Channel per Server 8

Operating system Clustering software Cluster quorum configuration Database software Storage component Controllers Disk enclosures Disks Windows 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition Windows Failover Clustering Node and Disk Majority SQL Server 2012 SP1 Enterprise Edition Description 2 x Compellent SC8000 (SCOS v6.2.2) 3 x Compellent SC220 72 x 300G, 6Gbps 15k 2.5" SAS drives SAN switches 2 x Brocade 300 Reference Architecture Hardware Component Details This section describes the hardware details used for the specific reference configurations. Dell PowerEdge R720 server Dell launched the 12 th generation PowerEdge servers with support for Intel Xeon E5 series processors. The PowerEdge R720 is a 2-socket 2U rack server that offers simplified management, purposeful design, and energy efficiency with support for Intel E5 Series Sandy-Bridge processors and ECC DDR3 RDIMMs with a maximum capacity of 768GB Memory. PowerEdge R720 provides five x8 PCIe Gen3 and two x16 PCIe Gen3 slots. For more information on PowerEdge R720 Servers, visit dell.com/us/enterprise/p/poweredge-r720/pd. QLogic QLE2562 8Gbps host bus adapter The reference architectures make use of four QLogic QLE2562 dual port 8Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express host bus adapter cards. For more information on QLogic QLE2562 FC adapters, visit qlogic.com Brocade 300 SAN switch The Brocade 300 switch is a 1U rack-mountable 8Gbps (Full Duplex) FC switch with 24-8Gbps ports. It enables organizations to simplify IT infrastructures, improve system performance, maximize the value of virtual server deployments, and reduce overall storage costs. For more information on Brocade 300 SAN switches, visit http://www.brocade.com/products/all/switches/product-details/300-switch/index.page Dell Compellent SC8000 controller Leveraging 12 generations of design experience, the SC8000 controller offers high performance, more memory, advanced power efficiency, and improved diagnostics over previous generation systems. 9

The Compellent SC8000 is a 2U storage controller that supports 64GB of memory per controller, 128GB of memory per controller pair. It can also support up to 16 FC front-end ports and 10 SAS back-end ports per controller. With the Dell Fluid Data Architecture, Compellent changes the way organizations manage data. Empowered by real-time system information about each block of data, Storage Center optimizes data placement, management and protection throughout its lifecycle. This level of data awareness also enables Storage Center to virtualize the storage infrastructure, bringing new efficiency, flexibility and reliability to enterprise storage by creating a pool of high-performance storage shared by all servers and applications. For more information on Dell Compellent SC8000 controllers, visit www.dell.com/us/business/p/dell-compellent-sc8000/pd Dell Compellent SC220 disk enclosure The SC220 is a 6Gbps SAS, 2U enclosure that supports up to 24-2.5 drives to enable a broad mix of storage options in one chassis. A maximum of seven enclosures are supported in a single SAS chain. For more information on Dell Compellent storage arrays, visit http://www.dell.com/in/business/p/dell-compellent-sc200/pd. Reference Architecture Configuration and Tuning Details This section explains the best practices and tuning guidelines used to achieve the best results. Storage Center Configuration and Tuning Cabling The hardware components were connected using Compellent best practices. Figure 3 illustrates the connections between each hardware component used in the single server configuration. 10

Figure 3. Cabling diagram Disk configuration All 72 disks from the three SC220 disk enclosures were put into the Assigned disk folder. One disk in each enclosure was defined as a hot spare, leaving 69 active disks. All volumes were created in the Assigned disk folder. Figure 4 shows the disk configuration used in the reference architecture. 11

Figure 4. Disk configuration Storage type The storage type defines the page size used on the Storage Center and whether or not the storage is configured for redundancy (single or dual). The storage type can be configured to use a 512KB, 2MB (default) or 4MB page. The storage type was configured for single redundancy, using a page size of 4MB. Note: While the Fast Track workload performed best using a 4MB page size with the reference architecture, it should not be viewed as a general best practice for all data warehousing environments. A variety of factors, including the use of Replays, RAID level and the I/O pattern of all workloads on the Storage Center, need to be carefully considered before choosing a page size other than the 2MB default page size. Storage profile The Dell Compellent Storage Center uses storage profiles to define the RAID level and tiers on which data is stored for a given volume. By default, newly created volumes will use the Recommended (All Tiers) storage profile. This storage profile will use RAID 10 for active (writeable) data and RAID 5 for Replays. To increase capacity, the reference architecture uses RAID 5 for both active data and Replays. A custom storage profile named "RAID 5 Tier 1" was created to use RAID 5 only. All volumes on the Compellent storage array use the custom storage profile. Figure 5 shows the custom storage profile used for all volumes in the reference architecture. 12

Figure 5. Custom storage profile Server object The process of mapping a volume to a server object creates the I/O path (or paths) between a volume and a server. When creating a server object, the operating system of the server is defined. The Storage Center includes both single path and multi-path definitions for each version of Windows. In this configuration, the server object on the storage center was created using the "Windows 2008 MPIO" definition. Since the MPIO version of the Windows 2008 definition was chosen, the volume mapping will contain 16 paths. Note: When mapping volumes for use in a Windows failover cluster, it is strongly recommended to use a cluster server object on the Compellent Storage Center. Volume creation All volumes were created in the Assigned disk folder, using the "RAID 5 Tier 1" custom storage profile. For the primary user and system temp database data files, eight 700GB volumes (LUNs) were created. For the primary user and system temp database transaction log files, one 200GB volume (LUN was created). Replays were not configured on any of the volumes. Figure 6 shows the Storage Center volume details for the reference architecture. Figure 6. Storage Center volume details 13

Server hardware configuration Host bus adapters The QLogic HBAs in the server were configured using Compellent best practices The following parameters were changed from the factory default: The "Connection Options" parameter is set to "1-Point to Point only" The "Execution Throttle" parameter is set to 256 The "Login Retry Count" parameter is set to 60 The "Port Down Retry Count" parameter is set to 60 The "Link Down Timeout(seconds)" parameter is set to 30 Windows configuration and tuning Power plan To maximize the server performance, the server was configured to use the "High Performance" power plan. Figure 7 shows the power plan on the database server. Figure 7. Windows power plan Windows volumes Each volume was formatted with the NTFS file system using an allocation unit of 64KB. For Fast Track architectures, Dell recommends using mount points for the volumes instead of drive letters. It is highly recommended to assign appropriate volume and mount point names in order to simplify troubleshooting and performance analysis. Ideally, the mount point names should be assigned in such a way that the logical file system reflects the underlying physical storage. 14

Table 4 shows the LUN and mount point names used for the specific reference configuration and the appropriate storage layer mapping. All the logical volumes were mounted to the C:\FT folder. Table 4. Mount point naming and storage enclosure mapping Storage Controller Logical LUN (volume) Logical Volume Label Logical Array Label Full Volume Path 1 1 SE1SP1V1 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP1V1 2 2 SE1SP2V2 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP2V2 1 3 SE1SP1V3 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP1V3 2 4 SE1SP2V4 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP2V4 1 5 SE1SP1V5 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP1V5 2 6 SE1SP2V6 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP2V6 1 7 SE1SP1V7 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP1V7 2 8 SE1SP2V8 PRI C:\FT\SE1SP2V8 1 9 Log-SE1 LOG C:\FT\Log-SE1 SE: Storage enclosure, SP: Storage processor, V: Volume MPIO The reference architecture uses two Compellent controllers, each having four Fibre Channel (FC) frontend ports. The database server also has eight FC ports, using four dual port QLogic QLE2562 FC HBAs. To improve throughput, each SQL Server data volume on the server is configured to use a single unique path between the Storage Center and the server. To ensure only one path is used for each volume, the MPIO policy is set to "Fail Over Only". The MPIO policy for the SQL Server transaction log volume is set to "Round Robin", allowing it to use all paths. Figure 8 shows the MPIO policy used for each SQL Server data volume. Figure 9 shows the MPIO policy for the SQL Server transaction log volume. 15

Figure 8. MPIO policy for data volumes Figure 9. MPIO policy for the transaction log volume 16

SQL Server configuration and tuning Startup parameters The following options were added to the SQL Server startup parameters: -E This parameter increases the number of contiguous extends in each file that are allocated to a database table as it grows. This option is beneficial because it improves sequential access. -T1117 This trace flag ensures the even growth of all files in a file group when auto growth is enabled. Note that the Fast Track reference guidelines recommend to pre-allocate the data file space rather than to depend on auto grow. SQL Server maximum memory For SQL Server 2012, FTDW 4.0 guidelines suggest allocating no more than 92% of total server RAM to SQL Server. If additional applications will share the server, the amount of RAM left available to the OS should be adjusted accordingly. The maximum server memory was set at 176.64GB. MAXDOP and Resource Governor The resource governor (disabled by default) and the 'max degree of parallelism' settings (0 by default) were set to 12 and 16 respectively. Additional Storage Considerations for the Highly Available (HA) Reference Architecture The HA reference architecture leverages Windows Failover Clustering to achieve high availability. When configuring a Windows failover cluster, there are additional storage considerations: The recommended quorum model for a two node cluster is "Node majority with witness (Node and Disk Majority)". An additional volume will need to be created and configured as the quorum drive. Dell recommends using a 2GB quorum drive. Visit technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc731739.aspx for more information on quorum configurations in a failover cluster. All volumes need to be mapped to each node of the cluster. It is recommended to use a cluster server object in the Storage Center when mapping volumes to the cluster. All volumes need to be configured as a cluster resource added to the SQL Server cluster resource group. 17

Reference Architecture Performance Details Table 5 shows the Fast Track performance metrics for the reference architecture. Table 5. Fast Track performance metrics Metric Value Description FTDW Rated Capacity (TB) 30 FTDW Rated I/O (MB/s) 4377.5 Up-to User Data Capacity (TB) 47 Benchmark Scan Rate Logical (MB/s) 5087.5 This capacity rating is based on up-to capacity but adjusted to account for Fast Track Rated I/O. Core performance metric for validation. This is the midpoint of physical and logical I/O. Maximum user data capacity. Includes the total disk capacity of all disks allocated to primary data storage and does assume SQL Server page compression ratio of 3.5:1. This metric is not limited by rated bandwidth. Reflects actual user query throughput which includes reads from RAM/Buffer cache. Benchmark Scan Rate Physical (MB/s) 3667.5 Reflects physical I/O read from disk during benchmark. FTDW Peak I/O (MB/s) 6254 Maximum observed I/O rate. FTDW Rated CSI (MB/s) 5282.5 Represents potential throughput using Columnstore indexes. 18

Summary Dell, in partnership with Microsoft, enables customers to deploy tested and validated data warehouse systems using Fast Track Data Warehouse architectures. These uniquely-designed architectures ensure optimal Business Intelligence (BI) solutions. The end to end database best practices and recommendations enable the customer to achieve enhanced Return on Investment (ROI) with a balanced data warehouse environment with greater performance than traditional data warehouse systems. The Dell Microsoft Fast Track Architecture provides the following benefits to customers: Delivers a tested and validated configuration with proven methodology and performance behavior. Achieves a balanced and optimized system at all the levels of the stack by following the best practices of hardware and software components. Avoids over-provisioning of hardware resources. Offers high availability at all levels of setup (host, switches, and storage). Helps customers avoid the pitfalls of an improperly designed and configured system. Reduces future support costs by limiting solution re-architect efforts because of scalability challenges. 19