Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > Guides > Design Guide—Modernize Your Microsoft SQL Server Platform and Accelerate Deployments > Software architecture
We chose Microsoft SQL Server for our best practice tests because it is a commonly used Microsoft database by our customers. The SQL Server database also has a vast array of features and capabilities. In the final validation tests, we tested changes to the database configuration that optimize performance.
Database virtualization has been gaining momentum over the years. There are many advantages to virtualizing databases including consolidation, agility, and ease of management. We chose to virtualize the SQL Server database with VMware vSphere version 7.0U3. This requires another layer of configuration to the underlying hardware.
The Linux operating system has been widely accepted for running SQL Server databases. Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8.5 was used for the tests as this Linux flavor provides stability, reliability, and security required for databases.
During the validation, all best practices correspond to different layers in the solution and were applied simultaneously. The database performance metrics, transactions per minute (TPM) and new orders per minute (NOPM) were collected before and after implementing the best practices. The following table summarizes the software architecture used to validate the best practices.
Software | Version |
SQL Server | 2019 CU15
|
Operating system | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 |
VMware vSphere | VMware 7.0.3d with vCenter 7.0 |
There are many possible combinations for the software architecture. In testing with SQL Server, Red Hat 8.5, and VMware vSphere 7.0 the goal was to have a design that applies to what database customers use today and in the near future.