The Cellar - View Single Post

mbpark · 03-01-2008, 08:35 PM

#1. You want to get an HP Proliant. You really do. There is a reason they are the top Windows-based server in the enterprise.

#2. Don't run other additional roles for this box at all! That's a big security faux pas. You can buy cheap DL360's to run IIS or Active Directory on.

#3. If you have the budget, get the DL580 G5. I just built a quad 2.4 Ghz quad-core that will be getting 16GB RAM (it has 4 now, other 12 is getting shipped since my customer buys the RAM separately due to price). We're getting another one with 24GB for reports.

#4. Run 64-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 on it. This way you won't have to tweak memory settings to get more than 3GB allocated to SQL Server.

#5. Run SQL Server 2005 EE 64-bit. The performance between 32-bit and 64-bit is night and day.

#6. Look at getting a low-level Fibre Channel SAN. The HP servers are standardizing on 2.5" Serial Attached SCSI drives. It's better to just get a FC SAN and run a few LUNs for your data, logs, and backups to the server. This way, if you want to cluster, it won't be hard to do. iSCSI is not as mature as FC (4Gbit/second over fiber), and HP offers great deals on Storageworks equipment that can handle it. This way you can just set up your LUNS as RAID 0+1 for data and log, and RAID 5 for your backups and transaction log backups. HP also builds great stuff here.

#7. On that note, you can fit all of your OS + Application needs on 4 * 72 or 4* 146 SAS drives in a RAID 5 + Advanced Data Guard (ADG) configuration. The on-board RAID controller on the Proliants ships with this.

If you follow some semblance of these notes, you will have yourself a very high-performance DB.

Mitch

03-01-2008, 08:35 PM	#14
mbpark Lecturer Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Carmel, Indiana Posts: 761	Here's the rules of the road :) #1. You want to get an HP Proliant. You really do. There is a reason they are the top Windows-based server in the enterprise. #2. Don't run other additional roles for this box at all! That's a big security faux pas. You can buy cheap DL360's to run IIS or Active Directory on. #3. If you have the budget, get the DL580 G5. I just built a quad 2.4 Ghz quad-core that will be getting 16GB RAM (it has 4 now, other 12 is getting shipped since my customer buys the RAM separately due to price). We're getting another one with 24GB for reports. #4. Run 64-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 on it. This way you won't have to tweak memory settings to get more than 3GB allocated to SQL Server. #5. Run SQL Server 2005 EE 64-bit. The performance between 32-bit and 64-bit is night and day. #6. Look at getting a low-level Fibre Channel SAN. The HP servers are standardizing on 2.5" Serial Attached SCSI drives. It's better to just get a FC SAN and run a few LUNs for your data, logs, and backups to the server. This way, if you want to cluster, it won't be hard to do. iSCSI is not as mature as FC (4Gbit/second over fiber), and HP offers great deals on Storageworks equipment that can handle it. This way you can just set up your LUNS as RAID 0+1 for data and log, and RAID 5 for your backups and transaction log backups. HP also builds great stuff here. #7. On that note, you can fit all of your OS + Application needs on 4 * 72 or 4* 146 SAS drives in a RAID 5 + Advanced Data Guard (ADG) configuration. The on-board RAID controller on the Proliants ships with this. If you follow some semblance of these notes, you will have yourself a very high-performance DB. Mitch