Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > Guides > Implementation Guide—SQL Server 2019 Best Practices on PowerStore > PowerEdge R750xs: Database Optimized Performance Workload Profile
By default, the Database Optimized Performance (DOP) profile is not used on the PowerEdge R750XS server. In this best practice, we select the DOP profile in the BIOS to evaluate its impact on performance.
Category | PowerEdge |
Product | PowerEdge R750xs server |
Type of best practice | Performance Optimization |
Day and value | Day 3, Fine Tuning |
Overview
A BIOS profile is an easy way to apply firmware values that optimize the server. Below is a list of BIOS settings that are automatically changed by selecting the DOP Profile:
Other system profile changes include the following:
C1E: default Enabled changed to disabled. This change disables DIMM CKE power down and QPI power management.
C States: default Enabled changed to disabled. This change disables C-states and DIMM self-refresh.
Uncore Frequency: Default is Dynamic Uncore Frequency scaling (UFS) and changed to Maximum. Setting the frequency to Maximum enables best performance of the cores and uncore during runtime.
Energy Efficient Policy: We used the default balanced performance policy. This setting was changed to Performance and instructs the processors to operate at the highest performance level.
CPU Interconnect Bus Link Power Management: We changed the from the default of enabled to disabled.
PCI ASPM L1 Link Power Management: We changed the from the default enabled to disabled.
Overall, DOP benefits from setting several firmware settings to maximum performance. The only exception made in our validation tests was changing the VT setting back to the default value of enabled. However, for customers with physical (non-virtual) database deployments, we recommend keeping the DOP profile change for VT to disabled.
Recommendation
Our test finding from validating the DOP setting showed a slight improvement in performance for the database, therefore, it is considered as a Day 3, Fine Tuning recommendation. The below metrics showed a slight increase in:
New Order per Minute (NOPM)
Transaction per Minute (TPM)
PowerStore IOPS
Server CPU utilization
Implementation Steps
To set this DOP Workload Profile:
To enable the Virtualization Technology, on the iDRAC console, navigate to Processor Settings and select Enabled for Virtualization Technology.
Note: These changes require server reboot.
Additional resources
Setting up BIOS on 15th Generation (15G) Dell PowerEdge Server