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Dell PowerStore with Azure Arc-enabled Data Services
Executive summary Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance Hardware Dell PowerStore integration Performance study
Testing and environment
Performance test detail
Scalability test detail
Scale-up user workload
Scale-out instances
Lessons learned and environment details Appendix References

Performance test detail

Home > Storage > PowerStore > Databases and Data Analytics > Dell PowerStore with Azure Arc-enabled Data Services > Performance test detail

Performance test detail

  • SQL Server / Windows / VMware vs Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance General Purpose

    Microsoft SQL Server 2019, Microsoft Windows, and VMware ESXi is a popular combined platform for running SQL Server workloads. Therefore, we wanted to compare the performance between the SQL Server 2019, Windows, VMware stack vs. Arc-enabled SQL MI to demonstrate what customers can expect as they begin to run workloads on this platform.

    Arc-enabled SQL MI is available in two versions, General Purpose (GP) and Business Critical (BC). The first test compared a single SQL Server VM vs. a single Arc-enabled SQL MI GP running the MSOLTPE like workload using the Microsoft BenchCraft transaction driver. The results of this test showed nearly identical performance between the two.

    Workload comparison

    Figure 4.   MSOLTPE1 workload with nearly identical performance

    This test result aligns with what Microsoft has done to run SQL Server on Linux and in containers by porting the Platform Abstraction Layer (PAL) to different operating systems. The same SQL Server engine code is running on multiple platforms. Therefore, it makes sense that the workload performance should be very similar. More information about the PAL can be found in this Microsoft blog post.

    SQL Server/Windows/VMware vs Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance Business Critical

    Many SQL Server customers rely on Always On Availability Groups for protecting their SQL Server workloads. This protection is built into Arc-enabled SQL MI and one to three replicas are deployed in the Business Critical tier. Therefore, we wanted to assess the performance difference by comparing a SQL Server 2019, Windows, and VMware ESXi instance configured for Always On with two replicas vs. Arc-enabled SQL MI BC with two replicas. This workload is the same MSOLTPE1 workload and toolset that was used in the General Purpose test.

    Workload comparison

    Figure 5.   MSOLTPE1 workload with Always On Availability Group protection

    This test showed a 15% performance improvement when comparing an Arc-enabled SQL MI BC vs. a SQL Server 2019, Windows, and VMware ESXi configuration.