Pre and post tips to installing sql server correctly

th

EVENTPre and Post tips to Installing SQL Server correctly SQL Server 2008, 2008R2, 2012,2014Antonios Chatzipavlis

Database Architect • SQL Server Evangelist • Trainer MCT, MCSE, MCITP, MCPD, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSA, MCTS, MCAD, MCP, OCA, ITIL-F

Jan 22, 2015

51

I have been started with computers.

I started my professional carrier in computers industry.

I have been started to work with SQL Server version 6.0

I earned my first certification at Microsoft as Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (3rd in

Greece) and started my carrier as Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with more than 20.000

hours of training until now!

I became for first time Microsoft MVP on SQL Server

I created the SQL School Greece (www.sqlschool.gr)

I became MCT Regional Lead by Microsoft Learning Program.

I was certified as MCSE : Data Platform, MCSE: Business Intelligence

Antonios ChatzipavlisDatabase Architect • SQL Server Evangelist • Trainer • Speaker MCT, MCSE, MCITP, MCPD, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSA, MCTS, MCAD, MCP, OCA, ITIL-F

1982

1988

1996

1998

2010

2012

2013

Follow us in social media

Twitter @antoniosch / @sqlschool

Facebook fb/sqlschoolgr

YouTube yt/user/achatzipavlis

LinkedIn SQL School Greece group

Pinterest pi/SQLschool/

[email protected]

Selecting and Sizing the Server

51th AUTOEXEC.GR EVENT

SQL Server places different demands on its underlying hardware depending on what

type of database workload is running against the instance of SQL Server

• OLTP workloads

• OLAP workloads

You also have to keep in mind that very few database workloads are pure OLTP- or

pure DW-type workloads, so you will often have to deal with mixed workload types.

You also might have to host multiple databases on a single SQL Server instance,

where each database has a different type of workload

Understanding your Workload


• Characterized by a high number • of short-duration transactions

• and queries

that are usually executed on a single thread of execution.

• They can have a higher percentage of write activity

• The data in some tables can be extremely volatile.

• These characteristics have important implications for the

hardware selection and configuration process.

OLTP Workloads


• Characterized by longer running queries against more static data. • These queries are often parallelized by the query optimizer, so having a higher

number of physical cores in your processors can be very beneficial.

• Having a large amount of physical RAM is very useful for DW workloads• Because you will be able to have more data in the SQL Server buffer cache, which

will reduce the read pressure on the I/O subsystem.

• Tends to have very little write activity• DW-type queries read large amounts of data as they calculate aggregates

• So good sequential read I/O performance is very important.

• Which will also affect how you configure your I/O subsystem in terms of storage type and RAID level

OLAP Workloads


• Server Processor Count Selection• One common mistake is to assume that a “bigger” server in terms of

physical processor count is a faster server compared to a smaller server.

• Processor Vendor Selection• Intel or AMD

• Processor Model Selection• The performance of SQL Server is hugely dependent on the size of the L2

and L3 caches.

• Economizing on the L2 and L3 cache size is not usually an good choice.

Processor Selection


• The basic rule of thumb for SQL Server is that • You can never have too much memory

• Total number of memory slots• More slots is better

• SMP vs NUMA

Memory Selection

Selecting and Configuring Windows OS


• Windows Server 2012 R2

• Highly recommended especially for server than need to be

highly available.

• Avoid Windows Server 2008 R2 and older versions

Choosing Windows OS


• If you plan to use AlwaysOn AG it is important to apply the

following patches• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 – KB2545685

• Windows Server 2012 – KB2784261

• Windows Server 2012 R2 – KB2920151

• Prerequisites, Restrictions, and Recommendations for AlwaysOn Availability

Groups

Apply patches and hotfixes on WinOS

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff878487.aspx


• SQL Server does not need a giant page file

• If SQL Server is the major service on the box a 2GB page file

on system drive it’s enough

• Beware removing the page file (KB254649)

Configure the Windows page file


• Confirm that the Windows power plan is set to high

performance

• Confirm that the processors are running at full speed using

CPU-Z

Power Option

http://www.simple-talk.com/iwritefor/articlefiles/1511-image001.png

http://www.simple-talk.com/iwritefor/articlefiles/1511-image001.png

Setting Anti-Virus


• The servers is public on the Internet.

• The server have open ports to servers that are not behind a firewall.

• The server read or execute files from other servers.

• The server run HTTP servers

• The server hosting file shares.

• The server use Database Mail to handle incoming or outgoing email messages.

Use Anti-Virus when…


• Directories of SQL Server instance

• SQL Server data files

• SQL Server backup files

• Full-Text catalog files

• Trace files

• SQL audit files

• SQL query files

• SQL Server service

Setting Anti-Virus exclusions

Configuring Disks Storage subsystem


• Minimum RAID 1 for all drives • Including OS system drive

• Even SSD or PCI-Express

• RAID 10 for best performance

• Use 128GB drive for OS system drive

• Test the I/O performance SQLIO/SQLIOSIM

Use RAID


• OS System drive should be formatted with the default (4K)

cluster size.

• All drives holding data & log files should be formatted with

64K cluster size

• Check your storage for partition alignment

• Follow this rule even if it’s a VM on shared storage

Disk Drive Format


• SQL Server application folders

• SQL Server database data files

• SQL Server database log file • including TempDB

• TempDB data files

• Backups

Use separate drive for

Configuring Network


• The connectivity with SQL Server is important!

• You have Failover clustering or Availability Groups

• It’s a good practice even for standalone server

• Teaming NICs

Use Multiple Physical Network Cards when

Configuring Server for Security

and Performance


• Use dedicated domain user account with no special rights on the domain.

• You do not need or want this account to be a local admin on the machine where SQL Server will be installed.

• Use a separate, dedicated domain user account for the SQL Server Agent service.

• If you are going to be installing and using other SQL Server related services, you will want dedicated domain accounts for each service.

SQL Server services accounts


• Enable Instant File Initialization• Perform Volume Maintenance Tasks

• Grant Lock pages in memory• Common on SQL Server 2005 / Windows 2003

• Less common with newer versions

(Still it is a good idea to enable LPIM on a new system)

• Add the permissions to the Service Account in AD - KB319723• readServicePrincipalName

• writeServicePrincipalName

Policy Settings and Rights for the SQL Server service account

SQL Server Installation


• Install only the features you actually need• This will reduce your attack surface

• It will speed future maintenance of the instance because there are fewer

components to patch

• Install Services Packs or CUs

• Enter a strong password for the sa account if you choose

Mixed Mode authentication

• Set the Data Directories according to plan• Do not use C: drive

SQL Server Installation

Configuring SQL Server


• 1118• This trace flag switches allocations in tempdb from single-page at a time for

the first 8 pages, to immediately allocate an extent (8 pages).

• 2371 • that you can use to control when the query optimizer generates autostats

on a table

Trace Flags to enable


• Enable compressed backups

• Setting Default backup media retention (days)

• Setting Database default location for• Data files

• Log files

• Backups

Server Properties


• Max Worker Threads

• Priority Boost

• Lightweight Pooling

• Maximum number of concurrent connections

• Network Packet Size

Server Properties


• Set Max Server Memory• Important when LPIM is enabled

• Use this formula to calculate SQL Server Memory• Reserve 1GB for OS

• Reserve 1GB for each 4GB after the first 4GB and until 16GB

• Reserve 1GB for each 8GB after the first 16GB

• Monitor the Memory:Available MB performance counter

SQL Server Memory

Server Memory 64GB

1GB for OS

3GB for 4-16GB

6GB for 16-64GB

10GB in total

64-10 = 54 Max SQL

Server memory


• Change the default size for data and log files

• Change the file growth to fixed units

Tweak Model database


• Move TempDB to its own drive

• Grow the size of data file

• Add additional data files as the number of logical processors

up to 8 logical CPUs

• Each file must have the same size

• Pre-allocate the space.

• KB2154845

Configure TempDB


• Set this to the number of physical cores in a single NUMA node socket on your hardware or less

• Always use an even value

• Use the value of 1 only of you have specific vendor requirements • SharePoint

• BizTalk

• SAP

• KB2806353

Configure MAXDOP


• General default value of 5 is low for most OLTP workloads

and should be increased.

• Base value of 20-25 used for most server installs.

Cost Threshold of Parallelism


• Control the amount of memory that is used by single-use, ad hoc query plans in the plan cache.

• SQL Server store only a small stub of an ad hoc query plan in the plan cache the first time that the ad hoc plan is executed

• Reduces the memory required for that plan in the plan cache.

• It’s not a panacea for single-use ad hoc query plans

• http://www.sqlschool.gr/blog/do-you-have-optimize-for-ad-hoc-workloads-on-sql-server-2008-r2-instances-380.aspx

Optimize for Ad-hoc workloads

http://www.sqlschool.gr/blog/do-you-have-optimize-for-ad-hoc-workloads-on-sql-server-2008-r2-instances-380.aspx


• Enable TCP/IP

• Firewall exceptions • TCP port of instance

• UTP 1434 for SQL Browser

SQL Server Network Connectivity


• Configure Database Mail

• Create Operators

• Configure SQL Agent to use Database Mail

• Create Alerts for Severity 16 to 25

• Create Alerts for Errors 823, 824, 825

• Adding Ola Hallengren’s Maintenance Solution

• Install Adam Machanic sp_WhoIsActive

• Install and run Brent Ozar sp_Blitz

Configure Alerting and Monitoring

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/default.aspx

User Databases Creation


• Don’t use the default file size

• Don’t use presentence as file growth

• Pay attention on T-Log size and growth to produce equal VLFs

• Use more than one filegroups• In PRIMARY leave system object

• Put all user objects to another filegroup

• Use more than one data files• Even this are in the same drive

Create Database


• Don’t set Auto Close

• Don’t set Auto Shrink

• Don’t unset Auto Create/Update Statistics

Database Properties

Pre and post tips to installing sql server correctly

Technology

Transcript of Pre and post tips to installing sql server correctly