How to configure and test SQL Server on storage area networks (SANs) with tools like multipathing and SQLIO.

1. SQL Server onStorage Area Networks

2. Brent Ozar SQL Server MVPfor Quest Software Managed SQL, VM, 80tb SAN for $7b co Published author Made lots of expensive mistakes www.BrentOzar.com @BrentO on Twitter

3. BrentOzar.com/go/insidetheblackbox

4. The Agenda Inside the SAN DBA Pros & Cons Starting From The Beginning How to Use SQLIO Multipathing

5. In The Beginning…

6. Next: External Storage

7. Storage Area Networks Independent Expandable Well-Protected Blazing Fast Complex Expensive

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11. Photo Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/tophost/2246209421/

12. SAN Components Drive enclosures Controllers (& Cache) Switch networks Host Bus Adapters HBA Drivers Servers

13. Drive Allocation Methods

15. Good Things Clustering Table partitioning Faster builds Easier growth Caching speed PhotoSource http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcka/3240903696/

16. Not-So-Good Things Black box Cachingmay not help Compatibility lists More drivers Tough to grow SAN adminsmay not help Photo Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/95709873/

17. “How many gigs do you need?”

18. “We’ll keep an eye on it for ya.” Perfmon changes Neighbors change SAN changes SAN monitoring software is tough Photo Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjoro/39470992/

19. What’s Your Bottleneck? Not Enough Drives Drives Too Slow Shared Drives RAID Level SAN Controllers Partition Alignment Drivers Multipathing

20. Things to Monitor Hard drives Controllers (CPU, caching) Controller connectivity to the network Network switch throughput Server connectivity to the SAN (the HBA) Server drivers

21. The X Factor: Redundancy Hard drives – hundreds Controllers – 2+ Controller connectivity to network – 4+ Network – separate networks, switches Server connectivity to SAN – 2+ Network fabrics – iSCSI, Fiber, WAN

22. SAN Monitoring Strict HCLs, SCLs Cross-platformmeans JAVA No “full” picture Very, very, veryexpensive Photo Source: http://flickr.com/photos/earthandeden/865393933/

23. Unpredictable, Unexplainable

24. Start From The Beginning Get block sizes right Align partitions Design for pathing Test with SQLIO Install SQL Server Monitor sec/read, write Save history

25. Simple SAN Pathing

26. Simple SAN Pathing

27. Simple SAN Pathing

28. Simple SAN Pathing

29. SIMPLE?!?1#%&@!?

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31. Goals of Multipathing Protection Performance

32. Active/Active Can Mean

33. Active/Active Gotchas One path per LUN/volume Sending vs receiving Post-failover stickiness Network design

34. Network Bottleneck Example

35. Pathing Really Matters Now

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37. Photo Licensed with Creative Commons from http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomdocs/3127663764/ Why Can’t We Go Faster?

38. How to Run SQLIO sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o1 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat

39. Write This Down. It’s Important. sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o1 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o2 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o4 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o8 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o16 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o32 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o64 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o128 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t4 -s120 -dM -o1 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t4 -s120 -dM -o2 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t4 -s120 -dM -o4 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio -kW -t4 -s120 -dM -o8 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat

40. We Did the Hard Work

41. The Output E:rogram Files (x86)QLIO>sqlio -kW -t2 -s120 -dM -o1 -frandom -b64 -BH -LS Testfile.dat sqlio v1.5.SG using system counter for latency timings, -1361967296 counts per second 2 threads writing for 120 secs to file M:Testfile.dat using 64KB random IOs enabling multiple I/Os per thread with 1 outstanding buffering set to use hardware disk cache (but not file cache) using current size: 24576 MB for file: M:Testfile.dat initialization done CUMULATIVE DATA: throughput metrics: IOs/sec: 1539.50 MBs/sec: 96.21 latency metrics: Min_Latency(ms): 0 Avg_Latency(ms): 0 Max_Latency(ms): 572 histogram: ms: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24+ %: 66 32 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

42. Common Bottlenecks 1 gig = ~125 MB/sec 2 gig = ~250 MB/sec 4 gig = ~500 MB/sec 10 gig = ~1250 MB/sec

43. Working Around It Data/logs/tempdbon different volumes Separategroups of DBs Separate DBinto filegroups TempDB, backups Photo Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/doodlemonger/2667917978/

44. Wrapping It Up Test before deployment Learn multipathing Design DB files around SAN limits Monitor forever Get vendor help Photo Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/doodlemonger/2667917978/

45. Advanced Topics Table partitioning Filegroups & files Snapshot backups Storage virtualization Storage VMotion SAN administration Photo Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasthomas/504369245/

46. BrentOzar.com/go/insidetheblackbox