Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > Best Practices > AMD-Based SQL Server Best Practices on Dell PowerEdge R740 and PowerMax 2000 > Introduction to Best Practices for SQL Server > Physical Architecture
The architecture was designed to broadly represent the infrastructure customers use for their SQL Server databases. Dell EMC PowerEdge R7525 servers were used for the compute layer. Each PowerEdge R7525 was configured the same to ensure consistency of test results. Two AMD EPYC 74F3 processors with 24 physical cores each for a total of 48 cores were used. The default server configuration enables logical processors thus, at the hypervisor layer 96 cores were available. A detailed configuration is shown in the following table:
Table 2: Physical architecture configuration
Processors |
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Memory |
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Network Adapters |
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HBA |
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Storage controller and hard drives |
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To learn more about the server visit the PowerEdge R7525 page and download the technical guide.
For connectivity from the servers to the PowerMax storage array Dell EMC Connectrix switches were used. The Connectrix DS-6620B is designed to support medium-to-large sized database deployments. The Connectrix configuration used in our tests included 24 active 32Gb/s ports to optimize the connection to the PowerMax storage.
A PowerMax 2000 storage array was used to validate best practices. The PowerMax 2000 offers enterprise rich data services like snapshots, replication, and many other features in a small footprint. In the PowerMax configuration used there were 28 NVMe drives, each 3.8 TB in size. Full details of the PowerMax 2000 configuration are shown in the following table:
Table 3: PowerMax 2000 configuration
Processors |
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Bricks |
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Cache size |
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Drives |
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Total usable capacity |
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Front-end I/O modules |
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Many production database systems use dedicated infrastructure. In validating SQL Server best practices all the Dell EMC infrastructure was reserved for the database. No parallel workloads were running and competing for CPU, network, and storage resources. This approach of validating best practices in a dedicated environment was used to eliminate extraneous variables that might negatively impact test results. We understand many of today’s environments have been consolidated and the challenges that can arise in tuning one database system on shared infrastructure.
With consolidated systems the implementation of best practices might improve performance, but the positive gains might not be as significant due to the shared resources. Using these best practices can assist with resolving some challenges by integrating Day 1, highly recommended configuration as part of provisioning an SQL Server database. As the database ecosystem transforms using best practices overall systems performance may rise and consolidated systems might perform more efficiently. Best practices offer the enterprise the ability to deploy a database with the optimal design and with ecosystems the capability to drive improved efficiencies.