1. Get the most out of yourWindows Azure VMs
Or how SQL Server best practices
apply in the cloud

2. About me
2|
@ikdonev
/ivan.donev
/in/ikdonev

3. Agenda
3|

5. TIERSIZE

6. What do you get?
Hyper-V VM with TIER and SIZE
Multi-tenant configuration
Windows Server and SQL Server installed
3 disks
OS
Temporary
Data disk

7. Tip #1 –VM Size
Start from Standard A2
2CPUs and 3,5GB Memory
Basic Tier use different hardware
For intensive workloads –A8 and A9 Standard
Utilize the Standard D_XX VMs
Non-persistent data
BPE

8. Tip #2 –Storage account settings
Keep it close to the VM
Disable GEO replication

9. Tip #3 –Disks and Storage caching
Disable caching on data disks
Changing cache settings require VM restart
Disktype
ReadOnly
ReadWrite
None(disabled)
Operatingsystemdisk
Supported
Defaultmode
Notsupported
Datadisk
Supported
Supported
Defaultmode

10. Random I/O (8 KB Pages)
Sequential I/O (64 KB Extents)
Reads
Writes
Reads
Writes
8000
8000
2400
4000
60 MB/s
60 MB/s
150 MB/s
250 MB/s
Tip #4 –Multiple disks for I/O bandwidth
Single disk performance
Multiple disks
Striping/Storage pools (WS2012)
Random I/O (8 KB Pages)
Sequential I/O (64 KB Extents)
Reads
Writes
Reads
Writes
IOPS
500
500
500
300
Bandwidth
4 MB/s
4 MB/s
30 MB/s
20 MB/s
8/16 disks
Random I/O (8 KB Pages)
Sequential I/O (64 KB Extents)
Reads
Writes
Reads
Writes
IOPS
4000
4000
2400
2400
Bandwidth
30 MB/s
30 MB/s
150 MB/s
150 MB/s

11. Disk striping vs Storage Pools
Dynamic volume on OS level
No Protection
Multiple volumes
Storage Pools
You can use RAID protection
Multiple volumes on the same pool

12. Options for storage layout
Single volume (striped or from Storage pool)

13. Options for storage layout -cntnd
Multiple striped volumes

14. Tip #5 –Single vs. Multiple storage accounts
Avoid mixing up
Recovery is more difficult with mixed accounts
Be careful with limits!
500TB per account

15. Tip #6 –NTFS Allocation size
Default = 4 KB
Recommended = 64 KB
Test with 256 KB cluster size

16. Tip #7 –Instant file initialization
Part of the local security policy

17. Performance impact of IFI
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Create 100 GB database
Restore 100 GB database
Time (minutes)
Impact of Instant File Initialization
Without Instant File Initialization
With Instant File Initialization

18. Tip #8 –Data compression
PAGE compression perform better
Reduced I/O
Improved OLTP Throughput

19. 400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
900000
1000000
100000
150000
200000
250000
NONE
PAGE
Reads
Time (ms)
Query Performance with Data Compression
CPU Time
Elapsed Time
Logical Reads
Physical Reads (+RA)

20. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
NONE
PAGE
CPU Time (%), Throughput (Business Transactions/sec)
OLTP Throughput and CPU Usage with Data Compression
Throughput
CPU Time (%)

21. Tip #9 –Locked pages in memory

22. Tip #10 –Growing and shrinking
Disable autoshrink
Limit or disable autogrowth

23. What I did not mention
Adaptive partitioning and load balancing
Backups to Azure BLOB storage
-NumberOfColumnsand –Interleave when adding disk to Storage Pools
Preconfigured and optimized VMs
DWH
OLTP

24. Sponsors

25. Resources
http://blogs.technet.com/b/yungchou/archive/ 2012/08/31/windows-server-2012-storage- virtualization-explained.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/azure/dn248436.aspx
http://thomaslarock.com/2014/08/qa-azure- webinar-scott-klein/
http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/know-your-raid- levels