Tuning SQL Server 2005 on Windows Integrity Servers

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Introduction
The HP Integrity server family includes a wide range of scalable servers that run Microsoft Windows
Server 2003. The Windows Integrity platform – based on the Microsoft Windows 64-bit operating
system, Intel Itanium® 2 processor, HP system design, and industry standard I/O architecture based
on PCI-X buses -- is exceptionally well-suited for workloads such as business intelligence and line-of-
business applications that demand high-performance computing. Large databases at the core of these
workloads quickly reach the limits of 32-bit architecture of x86-based systems, but the 64-bit
architecture of the Windows Integrity platform offers much greater headroom. Windows running on
the HP Integrity Superdome, for example, supports 1 terabyte of main memory
1
, 64 logical processors
(the maximum that the Windows OS can support), and 192 PCI slots.
Windows Integrity is the ideal platform to capitalize on the advantages of Microsoft SQL Server 2005
(64-bit). SQL Server 2005 delivers increased security, scalability, and availability to enterprise data
and analytical applications, while making them easier to build, deploy, and manage. Optimized for
the Itanium 2 processor, SQL Server 2005 (64-bit) takes advantage of advanced memory addressing
capabilities for essential resources such as buffer pools, caches, and sort heaps, thereby reducing the
need to perform multiple I/O operations to bring data in and out of memory from disk. Greater
processing capacity without the penalties of I/O latency means greater application scalability.
Although SQL Server 2005 (64-bit) runs “out-of-the-box” on Windows Integrity, we recommend some
tuning guidelines to improve performance and take full advantage of the capabilities of this platform.
This document describes configuration settings that represent current “best practices” in tuning an HP
Integrity system for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005.
Server
HP Integrity mid-range and high-end servers have a cell-based architecture that enables you to
configure the server complex either as a single large system or as multiple smaller systems known as
node partitions (nPartitions). An nPartition contains one or more cells (with processors and memory)
and all I/O chassis connected to those cells. Each cell has its own memory and can contain up to 4
active processors. All processors, memory, and I/O in an nPartition are used exclusively by software
running in the nPartition. Thus, each nPartition has its own system boot interface; each nPartition boots
and reboots independently. The following graphic shows the cell-based architecture of a Superdome.
1
With Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows on Integrity will support up to 2 TB.