Summary
Microsoft SQL Server solution is a high-performance data platform that is optimized for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Decision Support System or Analytics workloads. This solution helps to provide customers with system architectures that are optimized for a range of business operation and analysis needs. It also enables customers to achieve an efficient resource balance between the SQL Server data processing capability and the hardware throughput.
Market positioning
SQL Server enables organizations to gain intelligence from all types of data. By using SQL Server with Windows on the latest generation Dell PowerEdge servers with the latest Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, organizations get faster insights from transaction processing and analytical processing.
Expanded product features
Intel Xeon Scalable Processors
The 4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor family has the most built-in accelerators of any CPU on the market to speed up AI, databases, analytics, networking, storage, and HPC workloads.
Along with software optimizations, the following features help improve workload performance and power efficiency:
- Intel® Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel® AMX)
- Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT)
- Intel® Data Streaming Accelerator (Intel® DSA)
- Intel® Dynamic Load Balancer (Intel® DLB)
- Intel® In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (Intel® IAA)
With Microsoft SQL Server 2022 and Intel® QuickAssist Technology, customers can efficiently speed-up compressed database backups without significanly increasing CPU utilization, leaving more resources for handling user queries and other database operations.
Memory
The latest Dell PowerEdge servers with Intel 4th Gen Xeon® Scalable processors supports eight channels of DDR5 memory modules per socket running at up to 4800MT/s with 1 DIMM per channel or up to 4400MT/s with 2 DIMMs per channel, offering up to 1.5x bandwidth improvement over previous generation platofrms with DDR4 memory, increased memory capacity, and power efficiency.
Storage/RAID
Intel® Optane™ SSDs deliver performance, Quality of Service (QoS), and capacity improvements to optimize storage efficiency, enabling data centers to do more per server, minimize service disruptions, and efficiently manage at scale. Intel® Optane™ SSD P5800X with next generation Intel® Optane™ storage media and advanced controller does not comprise I/O performance read or write (R/W) and high endurance, and provides unprecedented value over legacy storage. In the accelerating world of intelligent data, Intel® Optane™ SSD P5800X offers three times greater random 4k mixed R/W I/O operations per second (IOPS) over Intel® Optane™ SSD P4800X1 (PCIe* 3.x).
Key Considerations
- Higher performance with lower licensing costs - All configurations are based on the latest Dell PowerEdge servers with high-frequency 4th generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors to achieve best Microsoft SQL Server performance and optimize software licensing costs.
- Data redundancy and high availability - The Dell PERC H755N NVMe RAID controller provides high performance local data redundancy, resilience, and reliability for critical workloads and applications such as Microsoft SQL Server. For high availability, performance, and capacity scaling, use multiple servers with SQL Server replication, log shipping, mirroring, clustering, or AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG).
- Data throughput - Microsoft SQL Server Solution on Dell PowerEdge servers is built on high-performing Intel® architecture. The solution uses the high-performance Intel® Xeon® processors and better network, storage, and integrated platform acceleration products optimized for high workload density and performance.
- Optimized backup operations with QAT accelerator - The Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8462Y+ processor has a QAT accelerator that supports a high performance compression engine that can significantly shorten backup/restore operations on highly utilized servers running Microsoft SQL Server 2022.
Recommended Configurations
Base for SQL Server Standard Edition
Table 1. PowerEdge R660-based, up to 8 or 10 NVMe drives and optional HW RAID, 1RU
Feature | Description |
Platform[1] | Dell R660 chassis with NVMe backplane (10x 2.5” – direct connection without RAID, or 8x 2.5” with HW RAID support) |
CPU | 2x Xeon® Gold 6426Y with SST-PP (12c @ 2.5GHz base / 3.3GHz turbo), or 2x Xeon® Gold 5418Y with SST-PP (12c @ 2.7GHz base / 3.2GHz turbo) |
DRAM | 256GB (16x 16GB DDR5-4800) |
Boot device | Dell BOSS-S2 with 2x 480GB M.2 SATA SSD (RAID1) |
Storage adapter[1] | Optional Dell Front PERC H755N NVMe RAID |
Log drives | 2x 1.6TB Enterprise NVMe Mixed Use AG Drive U.2 Gen4 (RAID1) |
Data drives[2] | 4x (up to 6x/8x) 3.84TB (or larger) Enterprise NVMe Read Intensive AG Drive U.2 Gen4 |
NIC | Intel® E810-XXV for OCP3 (dual-port 25Gb) |
Base for SQL Server Enterprise Edition
Table 2. PowerEdge R660-based, up to 8 NVMe drives and HW RAID, 1RU
Feature | Description |
Platform | Dell R660 chassis with NVMe backplane (8x 2.5” with HW RAID support) |
CPU | 2x Xeon® Gold 6442Y (24c @ 2.6GHz base / 3.3GHz turbo) |
DRAM | 512GB (16x 32GB DDR5-4800) |
Boot device | Dell BOSS-S2 with 2x 480GB M.2 SATA SSD (RAID1) |
Storage adapter | Dell Front PERC H755N NVMe RAID |
Log drives | 2x 400GB or 800GB Intel Optane P5800X U.2 Gen4 (RAID1) |
Data drives | 6x 3.84TB (or larger) Enterprise NVMe Read Intensive AG Drive U.2 Gen4 |
NIC | Intel® E810-XXV for OCP3 (dual-port 25Gb) |
Plus for SQL Server Enterprise Edition
Table 3. PowerEdge R760-based, up to 16 or 24 NVMe drives and dual HW RAID, 2RU
Feature | Description |
Platform | Dell R750 chassis with NVMe backplane (16x 2.5” / 24x 2.5” with dual HW RAID support) |
CPU[3] | 2x Xeon® Platinum 8462Y+ (32c @ 2.8GHz base / 3.6GHz turbo) |
DRAM | 512GB (16x 32GB DDR5-4800) or more |
Boot device | Dell BOSS-S2 with 2x 480GB M.2 SATA SSD (RAID1) |
Storage adapter | Dual Dell Front PERC H755N NVMe RAID |
Log drives | 2x 400GB or 800GB Intel Optane P5800X U.2 Gen4 (RAID1) |
Data drives[4] | 6x (up to 14x/22x) 3.84TB (or larger) Enterprise NVMe Read Intensive AG Drive U.2 Gen4 |
NIC[5] | Intel® E810-XXV for OCP3 (dual-port 25Gb), or
Intel® E810-CQDA2 PCIe add-on card (dual port 100Gb) |
[1] optional Dell PERC H755N NVMe RAID controller supported only with 8-drive chassis
[2] max number of drives depends on the chassis version and HW RAID support
[3] The Xeon 8462Y+ SKU includes QAT engine for crypto and compression acceleration
[4] max number of drives depends on the chassis version and HW RAID support
[5] 100Gb NIC recommended for high throughput Data Warehouse loads and ETL processing
Learn more
Contact your Dell or Intel account team for a customized quote, at 1-877-289-3355.
