Deliver Business Insights Faster with Microsoft SQL Server 2019 and VMware vSAN™
Download PDFTue, 17 Jan 2023 07:07:32 -0000
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Summary
This joint paper outlines a brief discussion on the key hardware considerations when planning and configuring a VMware vSAN™server configuration. Including sample PowerEdge server configurations for a starting deployment and quoting process.
Today’s enterprises need to move fast to stay competitive. For example, high- speed transactional processing solutions accelerate insights for financial trading or wholesale supply. High-speed analytics solutions enable users to quickly identify patterns in customer behavior or resource usage to inform better predictions and forecasts.
IT professionals are on point to deliver this high-performance data while reducing infrastructure costs. That is why IT pros choose Microsoft SQL Server 2019 running on VMware vSAN™.
They also choose Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™ rack servers configured with the latest generation of Intel® technologies. What are the benefits?
- Selecting SQL Server 2019 enables IT pros to deliver industry leading performancei.
- Adopting hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) powered by vSAN, combined with VMware vSphere®, enables IT pros to manage compute and storage with a single platform that lowers infrastructure costs when compared to traditional three-tier architecturesii.
- Dell EMC PowerEdge servers running vSphere boost the orders per minute (OPM) of transactional databases more than 1.9 timesiii, and they allow users to complete 8x the analytics in 39 percent less timeiv, when compared to previous-generation servers.
Key Considerations
To get started, available server configurations for SQL server 2019 are shown in the “Available Configurations” section below. Key considerations include the following:
- CPU: High-frequency 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors with 2.8 GHz clock speeds help optimize performance by enabling SQL Server 2019 locks to be released more quickly so multiple processes can access data faster. Additionally, Dell Technologies recommends using multiples of 24 CPU cores to make it easier to segment vSAN clusters and match the licensing structure of SQL Server 2019 Standard edition.
- Memory and Storage: The Base configuration can be set up with two storage groups and up to eight capacity drives, while the Plus configuration can be equipped with up to four storage groups and up to 12 capacity drives. In general, using more storage groups provides better write performance.
Dell Technologies recommends 1 TB of Intel® Optane™ persistent memory (PMem) 200 series per node. Intel Optane PMem creates a larger memory pool that enables SQL Server 2019 to run faster because data can be read from logical, in-memory storage, as opposed to a physical disk. For storage, Dell recommends using Intel Optane Solid State Drives (SSDs) for caching frequently accessed data. The Intel Optane SSD P5800X is the world’s fastest data center SSDv. PCIe® Gen4 NAND SSDs are recommended for the capacity tier.
- Networking: The configuration specifies Intel® Ethernet 800 Series network interface controllers (NICs) with Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), a hardware-acceleration feature that reduces the load on the CPU. Intel Ethernet 800 Series NICs start at 10 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and scale up to 100 GbE. With Intel Ethernet 800 Series NICs, you will notice faster data speed between vSAN clusters, which becomes more important as node counts grow.
Available Configurations
The Plus configuration includes more cores, memory, and storage to support more or larger SQL Server 2019 instances and provide better performance.
Configuratio nsvi | Base Configuration
Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™ R650 Rack Server, up to 10 NVMe® Drives, 1 RU | Plus Configuration
Dell EMC PowerEdge R750 Rack Server, up to 16 NVMe Drives, 2 RU |
Platform | Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™ R650 rack server supporting up to 10 NVMe drives (direct connection with no Dell™ PowerEdge RAID Controller [PERC]) | Dell EMC PowerEdge R750 rack server supporting up to16 NVMe drives (direct connection with no Dell PERC) |
CPUvii | 2 x Intel® Xeon® Gold 6342 processor (24 cores at 2.8 GHz) | 2 x Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8362 processor (32 cores at 2.8 GHz) or Intel Xeon Platinum 8358 processor (32 cores at 2.6 GHz) |
DRAM | 256 GB (16 x 16 GB DDR4-3200) | |
Persistent memoryviii | 1 TB (8 x 128 GB Intel® Optane™ PMem 200 series) | |
Boot device | Dell EMC™ Boot Optimized Server Storage (BOSS)-S2 with 2 x 480 GB Intel® SSD S4510 M.2 Serial ATA (SATA) (RAID1) | Dell EMC™ Boot Optimized Server Storage (BOSS)-S2 with 2 x 480 GB Intel® SSD S4510 M.2 Serial ATA (SATA) (RAID1) |
Storage adapter | Not required for an all-NVMe configuration | |
Cache tier drivesix | 2 x 400 GB Intel Optane SSD P5800X (PCIe® Gen4) or 2 x 375 GB Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X (PCIe Gen3) | 3 x 400 GB Intel Optane SSD P5800X (PCIe Gen4) or 3 x 375 GB Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X (PCIe Gen3) |
Capacity tier drives | 4 x (up to 8 x) 3.84 TB Intel SSD P5500 (PCIe Gen4, read- intensive) | 6 x (up to 12 x) 3.84 TB Intel SSD P5500 (PCIe Gen4, read-intensive) |
NIC | Intel® Ethernet Network Adapter E810-XXV for OCP3 (dual-port 25 Gb) | Intel Ethernet Network Adapter E810-XXV for OCP3 (dual-port 25 Gb) or Intel Ethernet Network Adapter E810-CQDA2 PCIe add-in card (dual-port 100 Gb) |
Learn More
Contact your Dell or Intel account team for a customized quote 1-877-289+-3355
Visit the Dell vSAN Configuration Options Getting Started
Download “Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes.” to learn about hyperconverged building blocks for VMware vSAN™ environments.
Download “Microsoft SQL 2019 on Intel Optane Persistent Memory (PMem) Using Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers” to learn about advantages of using Intel Optane PMem with SQL Server 2019.
i TPC. TPC-E webpage. http://tpc.org/tpce/default5.asp.
ii Forrester Consulting. “The Total Economic Impact™ of VMware vSAN.” Commissioned by VMware. July 2019. www.vmware.com/learn/345149_REG.html.
iii Principled Technologies. “Dell EMC PowerEdge R650 servers running VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2 can boost transactional database performance to help you become future ready.” Commissioned by Dell Technologies. June 2021. http://facts.pt/MbQ1xCy.
iv Principled Technologies. “Analyze more data, faster, by upgrading to latest-generation Dell EMC PowerEdge R750 servers.” Commissioned by Dell Technologies. June 2021. http://facts.pt/poJUNRK.
v Source: 14 at: Intel. “Intel® Optane™ SSD P5800X Series - Performance Index.” https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/performance/benchmarks/intel-optane-ssd-p5800x-series/.
vi The “Plus” configuration supports more or larger Microsoft SQL Server 2019 instances with higher core count CPUs and additional disk
groups that deliver higher performance.
vii Plus configuration: the Intel Xeon Platinum 8362 processor is recommended, but the Intel Xeon Platinum 8358 processor can be used instead if the Intel Xeon Platinum 8362 processor is not yet available.
viii Base and Plus configurations: Intel Optane PMem in Memory Mode provides more memory at lower cost.
ix Base and Plus configurations: The Intel Optane SSD P5800X is recommended, but the previous-generation Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X can be used instead if the Intel Optane SSD P5800X is not yet available.
Related Documents
Microsoft SQL Server Solution Overview
Fri, 03 Mar 2023 17:23:10 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
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 |
[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.
Scaling and Optimizing ML in Enterprises
Tue, 16 May 2023 19:53:46 -0000
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Summary
This joint paper, written by Dell Technologies, in collaboration with Intel®, describes the key hardware considerations when configuring a successful MLOps deployment and recommends configurations based on the most recent 15th Generation Dell PowerEdge Server portfolio offerings.
Today’s enterprises are looking to operationalize machine learning to accelerate and scale data science across the organization. This is especially the case as their needs grow to deploy, monitor, and maintain data pipelines and models. Cloud native infrastructure, such as Kubernetes, offers a fast and scalable means to implement Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) by using Kubeflow, an open source platform for developing and deploying Machine Learning (ML) pipelines on Kubernetes.
Dell PowerEdge R650 servers with 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors deliver a scalable, portable, and cost-effective solution to implement and operationalize machine learning within the Enterprise organization.
Key Considerations
- Portability. A single end-to-end platform to meet the machine learning needs of various use cases, including predictive analytics, inference, and transfer learning.
- Optimized performance. High-performance 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors optimize performance for machine learning algorithms using AVX-512. Intel® performance optimizations that are built into Dell PowerEdge servers can help fine-tune large Transformers models across multi-node systems. These work in conjunction with open-source cloud native MLOps tools. Optimizations include Intel® and open-source software and hardware technologies such as Kubernetes stack, AVX-512, Horovod for distributed training, and Tensorflow 2.10.0.
- Scalability. As the machine learning workload grows, additional compute capacity needs to be added to the cloud native infrastructure. Dell PowerEdge R750 servers with 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors deliver an efficient and scalable approach to MLOps.
Recommended Configurations
Cluster | ||
| Control Plane Nodes (Three Nodes Required) | Data Plane Nodes (4 Nodes or More) |
Functions | Kubernetes services | Develop, Deploy, Run Machine Learning (ML) workflows |
Platform | Dell PowerEdge R650 up to 10x 2.5” NVMe Direct Drives | |
CPU | 2x Intel® Xeon® Gold 6326 processor (16 cores @ 2.9GHz), or better | 2x Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8380 processor (40 cores at 2.3 GHz), or 2x Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8368 processor (38 cores @ 2.4GHz), or Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8360Y processor (36 cores @ 2.4GHz) |
DRAM | 128 GB (16x 8 GB DDR4-3200) | 512 GB (16x 32 GB DDR5-4800) |
Boot device | Dell Boot Optimized Server Storage (BOSS)-S2 with 2x 240GB or 2x 480 GB Intel® SSD S4510 M.2 SATA (RAID1) | |
Storage adapter | Not required for all-NVMe configuration. | |
Storage (NVMe) | 1x 1.6TB Enterprise NVMe Mixed- Use AG Drive U.2 Gen4 | 1x 1.6TB (or larger) Enterprise NVMe Mixed-Use AG Drive U.2 Gen4 |
NIC | Intel® E810-XXVDA2 for OCP3 (dual-port 25GbE) | Intel® E810-XXVDA2 for OCP3 (dual-port 25GbE), or Intel® E810-CQDA2 PCIe (dual-port 100Gb) |
Resources
Visit the Dell support page or contact your Dell or Intel account team for a customized quote 1-877-289-3355.