White Papers

Deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2008 based Decision Support Systems using Dell EqualLogic 10GbE iSCSI Storage 3
Each of the component layers in the solution stack requires careful design and configuration to ensure
optimal system performance. The considerations at each layer of the solution stack are described as
follows:
Storage The storage arrays must be configured to support capacity and performance
requirements. Considerations include: array controller capabilities, I/O port
specifications, RAID policies, hard drive types and spindle speeds. The data
volume layout within the storage arrays must also be optimized. Best practice
details for storage array configuration are presented in Section 4.1.
SAN Infrastructure The SAN infrastructure must be configured to optimize performance
(throughput) and availability. The large data I/O characteristics of DSS
workloads require special device and protocol level settings. Best practice
details for SAN design are presented in Section 4.2.
Server Hardware The server configuration must include enough processing capability, memory,
I/O bus bandwidth and installed Network Interface Controllers (NICs) to
support the DSS workload. Best practice details for server configuration are
presented in Section 4.3.
Operating System There are multiple operating system settings that must be optimized to
support device level capabilities, I/O performance, Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) and
most efficient utilization of server resources. Best practice details for
operating system configuration are presented in Section 4.4.
DSS Application The workload and I/O characteristics of the DSS application must be
thoroughly understood before you can most effectively configure the other
component layers in the system. In this paper we focus on how these
characteristics affect storage array configuration. Details are presented in
Section 4.5.
Furthermore, within each layer of the stack you must consider each of the following design goals:
Availability Ensuring high availability is a critical design guideline for each component in
the solution. Redundant sub-components and connection paths must be
maintained to avoid single points of failure.
Scalability Scalability is also critical for a DSS solution. Our solution architecture and best
practices address both scale out and scale up considerations.
Performance End-to-end performance is a key consideration for optimal operation of the
solution. Performance of each component in the stack must be balanced
such that bottlenecks in one layer do not waste resources in other layers.