Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > Guides > Implementation Guide—SQL Server 2019 Best Practices on PowerStore > Hardware components
The architecture was designed to broadly represent the infrastructure customers use for their SQL Server databases. Dell PowerEdge R750xs servers were used for the compute layer. Each PowerEdge R750xs was configured the same way to ensure consistency. Two Intel Xeon Gold 6338 processors with 32 physical cores each, for a total of 64 cores, were used. The default server configuration enables logical processors which means 128 cores were available at the hypervisor level. The following table shows the detailed configuration:
Processors | 2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6338 32C CPU @ 2.00 GHz
|
Memory | 16 x 64 GB 3200MT/s memory, total of 1 TB |
Network adapters | Embedded NIC: 1 x Broadcom BCM5720 1GbE DP Ethernet (mgmt.) Integrated NIC1: 1 x Broadcom Adv. Dual port 25Gb Ethernet NIC Slot 5: 1 x Mellanox ConnectX-5 EN 25 GbE Dual port Adapter |
HBA | 2 x Emulex LPe35002 32Gbps Dual Port Fibre Channel |
To learn more about the server, go to the PowerEdge R750xs page and download the specification sheet.
We used Dell Connectrix switches to connect the servers to the PowerStore storage array. The Connectrix DS-6620B is designed to support medium to large-sized database deployments. The Connectrix configuration used in our tests included eight active 32Gbps ports to optimize the connection to the PowerStore storage.
A PowerStore 5000T storage array was used to validate the best practices. The PowerStore storage array is cloud-enabled and offers enterprise-rich data services like snapshots, replication, and many other features in a small footprint. The PowerStore storage array is highly tuned and does not require much manual tuning. In the PowerStore 5000T configuration used, there were 21 NVMe drives, each 1.92TB in size. Full details of the PowerStore 5000T configuration are described in the following table:
Processors | 2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6130 CPU @ 2.10GHz per Node |
Cache size | 4 x 8.5GB NVMe NVRAM |
Drives | 21 x 1.92 TB NVMe SSD |
Total usable capacity | 28.3 TB |
Front-end I/O modules | 2 x Four-Port 32Gb FC |
Many production database systems use dedicated infrastructure. In validating the SQL Server best practices, all the Dell infrastructure was reserved for the database. No parallel workloads were running and competing for CPU, network, and storage resources. Validating best practices in a dedicated environment helped to eliminate variables that might impact test results. We understand that many environments have been consolidated and challenges can arise in tuning one database system on shared infrastructure.
The implementation of best practices might improve performance in consolidated systems, but the positive gains may not be as significant due to the shared resources. Using these best practices can mitigate some challenges by integrating Day 1, Highly Recommended configuration practices as part of provisioning an SQL Server database. As the database ecosystem is transformed by using best practices, the overall system 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 ecosystems with the capability to drive improved efficiencies.