Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation August 2018

H17292

Design Guide

Abstract This design guide describes the design and configuration best practices for a Dell EMC Ready Solution for SQL Server 2017. The solution is a hyper-converged implementation of the Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node cluster.

Dell EMC Solutions

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2 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

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Contents

3 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

About this guide .............................................................................................................................. 4

Solution components...................................................................................................................... 5

Solution architecture ...................................................................................................................... 9

Solution design ............................................................................................................................. 11

Server configuration ..................................................................................................................... 12

Storage configuration ................................................................................................................... 12

Windows Server and Hyper-V configuration .............................................................................. 13

SQL Server configuration ............................................................................................................. 14

DD Boost configuration ................................................................................................................ 15

Sample implementation: OLTP workload ................................................................................... 16

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 21

Introduction

4 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

Introduction The Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) is a validated solution for your database ecosystem. Many customers face the challenge of migrating and upgrading legacy versions of SQL Server to a modern cost-optimized solution that has the performance, reliability, and resiliency for databases. In this design guide, we detail how a 4- to 16-node S2D cluster in a hyper-converged architecture can be the consolidation platform for your SQL Server databases.

At the foundation of the S2D solution are Dell EMC PowerEdge 14th generation servers with all-flash storage. Each server is a performance-based building block that is preconfigured with S2D, allowing modular expansion. The minimum configuration for the Ready Solution is four servers, which provide the resiliency to survive two planned SQL virtual machine (VM) failures without affecting database availability. The modular design enables a cost-optimized entry point for the solution and enables you to incrementally grow the S2D cluster by adding nodes.

Dell EMC Engineering tested and validated the S2D cluster by running a step-stress test. We ran from one to eight virtualized databases on the storage cluster, incrementally adding more load and achieving near-linear scalability.

To provide a comprehensive platform that includes database backup and recovery, we integrated the Dell EMC Data Domain DD6300 system with Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Applications (DDBEA). In our testing, the Data Domain system was able to back up a 431 GB database in 3.8 minutes and restore the same database in 9.25 minutes.

The Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server with S2D nodes is a comprehensive solution that provides performance, resiliency, and protection for databases. It is also a cost-optimized database solution with a starting configuration of four S2D nodes, providing a low-investment entry point.

About this guide This design guide is for database administrators, system administrators, storage administrators, and architects who design and maintain database infrastructures. Readers should have some knowledge of Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft S2D, Microsoft SQL Server, Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, Dell EMC Data Domain appliances, and Dell EMC Networking products.

The guide outlines the solution design and best practices for configuring the solution for running Microsoft SQL Server 2017 on the PowerEdge R640-based hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). Dell EMC and the authors of this document welcome your feedback on the solution and the solution documentation. Contact the Dell EMC Solutions team with your comments.

Authors: Vaani Kaur, Sanjeev Ranjan, Sam Lucido

Audience and purpose

We value your feedback

Solution components

5 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

Solution components This solution includes Dell EMC hardware as well as software from both Dell EMC and Microsoft.

Dell EMC Ready Nodes are tested and validated configurations that are designed to provide the best possible performance. Dell EMC S2D Ready Nodes come primarily in three configurations—hybrid, all-flash and all-NVMe—to best accommodate your price versus performance requirements. This solution includes all-flash Ready Nodes based on preconfigured 14th generation PowerEdge R640 servers. The PowerEdge R640 servers support a broad range of deployment options in terms of network interface controllers (NICs), drives, and processor capabilities.

The R640 S2D Ready Node is the ideal dual-socket platform for dense scale-out data center computing and storage. Built on a scalable system architecture, the all-flash R640 S2D Ready Node provides two drive options, as shown in the following table, to easily meet performance demands.

Table 1. All-flash S2D Ready Node drive options

Configuration Chassis Drive layout

All-flash R640 S2D Ready Node (12 drives)—2.5-inch-drive from factor

12 x SSD

R640 S2D Ready Node (10 drives)—2.5-inch-drive from factor

10 x SSD

The following table lists the technical specifications of the R640 S2D Ready Node. Table 2. R640 S2D Ready Node technical specifications

Component Specifications

Form factor 1U

Processor Intel Xeon Scalable with up to 28 cores per socket

Processor sockets 2

Memory Up to 3 TB (24 DIMM slots): 8/16/32/64/128 GB DDR4 with up to 2,667 MT/sec

NIC • For 12-drive chassis: Mellanox Connect-X-4 LX or Qlogic FastLinQ 41262 rNDC

• For 10-drive chassis: Intel Ethernet 10G 4P X710/I350 rNDC and either of the following cards: Up to two Mellanox Connect-X-4 LX 25 GbE SFP add-in

adapter cards Up to two Qlogic FastLinQ 41262 25 GbE SFP add-in

adapter cards

Storage adapter HBA330

Boot device BOSS S.1 with 2 x BOSS M.2 devices in RAID 1

Dell EMC Storage Spaces Direct Ready Nodes

Solution components

6 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

Component Specifications

Drives See the solution overview for Dell EMC Ready Nodes for SSD

LAN switch Dell EMC Networking 10 GbE or 25 GbE

OOB switch Dell EMC Networking 1 GbE

For more information about the Dell EMC S2D Ready Nodes, see the S2D Ready Nodes wiki page on Dell TechCenter.

Dell EMC Networking S5048-ON Dell EMC Networking S5048-ON is a 25 GbE, L2- and L3-capable network switch for storage, cluster, and client traffic. Supported features include:

• Routable RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE)

• Converged network support for Data Center Bridging (DCB), with Priority Flow Control (802.1Qbb) and Enhanced Transmission Selection (802.1Qaz)

These features make S5048-ON the preferred choice for networking in an S2D deployment.

Dell EMC Networking S3048-ON Dell EMC Networking S3048-ON is a 1000 BASE-T, L2- and L3-capable switch that provides 48 ports supporting 10 MbE/100 MbE/1 GbE and four 10 GbE SFP+ uplinks. In this Ready Solution configuration, S3048-ON is deployed to support the out-of-band (OOB) connectivity between the PowerEdge R640 servers and the Dell EMC Networking S5048-ON switches.

Dell EMC Networking S4048-ON The Dell EMC Networking S-Series S4048-ON is an ultra-low-latency 10/40 GbE top-of-rack (ToR) switch that is built for applications in the high-performance data center and computing environment. Scalable L2 and L3 Ethernet switching with Quality of Service (QoS) and a full complement of standards-based IPv4 and IPv6 features, including Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and policy-based routing (PBR) support.

In this Ready Solution configuration, S4048-ON is deployed to segregate S2D storage and Data Domain backup and recovery network traffic to avoid a single point of failure. The connectivity is between the PowerEdge R640 servers and the Dell EMC Data Domain DD6300 appliance.

The Dell EMC Data Domain DD6300 is a backup appliance that is designed for the modern software-defined data center. Offering simplicity, efficiency, and high reliability, the Data Domain DD6300 is the only architecture that can natively tier deduplicated data to any cloud.

The Data Domain DD6300 appliance includes comprehensive data protection software that enables organizations of all sizes to protect, archive, and recover mission-critical workloads, regardless of where the data lives. Dell EMC data protection software protects a broad range of applications ranging from VMs to databases (high I/O OLTP), and

Dell EMC Networking

Dell EMC Data Domain DD6300 appliance

Solution components

7 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

VMware workloads running on AWS. Carefully designed Data Domain solutions accelerate backups up to 20 times and recovery up to 10 times for mission-critical applications.

The following table lists the technical specifications of the Data Domain DD6300 appliance. Table 3. DD6300 technical specifications

Feature DD6300 All-in-One (base configuration)

DD6300 All-in-One (expanded configuration)

Rack height 2U 2U

Processor E5-2620 V3 E5-2620 V3

Memory configuration (nonextended retention)

48 GB 96 GB

DIMMs 6 x 8 GB 12 x 8 GB

Supported capacity (nonextended retention)

76 TB (28 TB internal + 48 TB external)

180 TB (36 TB internal + 144 TB external)

HDDs in 3.5-inch bays 7 or 7+5 12

SSDs in 2.5-inch bays 1 2

NVRAM NVRAM 8g Model 3 NVRAM 8g Model 3

SAS I/O modules (quad-port 6 Gbps SAS)

> 0 for internal storage only > 1 with external storage

> 0 for internal storage only > 1 with external storage

SAS string depth (max)

ES30 1 4

DS60 0 1

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 is Microsoft’s cloud-ready operating system that provides enhanced security, built-in containers, and support for new software-defined capabilities for modern data centers. Key features of Windows Server 2016 include:

• Resilient File System (ReFS)—Enables faster placement of VMs on the file system

• Software-defined networking—Includes enhanced policies to control both physical and virtual networks

• Hyper-V—Supports nested virtualization

For a complete list of new features in Windows Server 2016, see What's New in Windows Server 2016 on the Microsoft website.

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct S2D, part of Windows Server 2016, offers software-defined storage capabilities for disk drives that are directly attached to the Dell EMC R640 Ready Node. S2D provides pooling and resiliency features for storage. When carefully designed, it also delivers high performance for I/O-intensive workloads such as SQL Server.

Microsoft Windows Server 2016

Solution components

8 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

SQL Server 2017 brings industry-leading OLTP, OLAP, and hybrid transaction/analytical processing (HTAP) capabilities, new encryption features, greater support for in-memory databases, and new end-to-end business intelligence (BI). Key features of SQL Server 2017 include:

• SQL Server Machine Learning Services—Supports Python in addition to R language

• Multiple platforms—Runs on Linux, Linux-based Docker containers, and Windows

• Resumable online index rebuild—Resumes an online index rebuild operation from where it stopped after a failure, or pauses and later resumes an online index rebuild operation

• Automatic database tuning—Provides insight into potential query performance problems, recommends solutions, and can automatically fix identified problems

For more information about the features of Microsoft SQL Server 2017, see What's New in SQL Server 2017 on the Microsoft website.

Dell EMC Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Applications (DDBEA) provides application-centric data protection. DDBEA uses an enterprise-application data protection framework that uses Data Domain Boost (DD Boost) to integrate the application with the Data Domain backup appliance.

The Microsoft application agent for DDBEA enables database and application administrators to efficiently back up and restore applications by using the applications’ native tools.

Features and capabilities of the Microsoft application agent for SQL Server include:

• Instance-level backups

• Multiple database backups and restores

• Transact-SQL (T-SQL) scripting to perform backups and restores

• Scheduled backups by using SQL Server Agent jobs

• For transaction log backups, a choice of either skipping the simple model databases from the backups or promoting the simple model databases to the full backups

• Full backup copies of the Always On availability group databases

• Support for IPv6

For more information about DDBEA for Microsoft applications, see Dell EMC Microsoft Application Agent Installation and Administration Guide.

Microsoft SQL Server 2017

Dell EMC Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Application

Solution architecture

9 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

Solution architecture In an HCI, the server is responsible for managing both the compute and storage resources. Hence, a careful balance in the recommended specifications of the server components is vital. The server processor must be capable of handling the HCI-associated storage overhead and the compute requirement for workloads to be run on the servers. Having predesigned, complementary, and prevalidated components enables you to realize the full benefits of HCI with the lowest possible data center footprint.

The storage components in this Ready Solution include the servers, direct-attached storage (DAS) drives, storage controller, and the RDMA network. The R640 S2D Ready Nodes support a wide range of DAS drives for the S2D storage pool. Supported drives include SSD, HDD, and NVMe drives that are validated for hyper-converged workloads. This solution uses the all-flash configuration.

The following figure illustrates the storage architecture on a four-node S2D Ready Node HCI.

Figure 1. Server and storage architecture

This Ready Solution uses the Mellanox Connect-X-4 Pro and the Dell EMC Networking S5048-ON to provide a high-speed network for the hyper-converged storage, application, and cluster traffic.

The RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) fabric connects various storage drives across servers. Data Center Bridging (DCB) concepts such as Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) and Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) enable fast, optimized, and reliable transport for storage traffic.

Server and storage architecture

Network architecture

Solution architecture

10 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

The following figure shows the network connections for a four-node S2D setup for the Ready Solution along with Data Domain DD6300.

Figure 2. Network architecture

Solution design

11 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

Solution design The Ready Solution for SQL Server 2017 with S2D is a pre-architected and validated solution that supports 4- to 16-node S2D clusters. You can use the Dell EMC Ready Solution for SQL Server Sizer to help determine the ideal size of your cluster based on your requirements.

The following diagram illustrates the solution design for a 16-node S2D cluster.

Figure 3. Solution design

Server configuration

12 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

Server configuration Dell EMC ships S2D servers with some settings, such as performance plan and hyper-threading settings, preconfigured as ordered. Dell EMC recommends the following settings for SQL Server workloads:

• Use High Performance Power Plan

• Enable Hyper-Threading

Storage configuration Storage design for an HCI requires consideration of multiple factors including drive selection, volume configuration, and cache management.

Consider the following factors when selecting drives:

• Type of workload

• Expected IOPS, latency, and throughput requirements

• Database size and expected growth

In an S2D setup, up to three types of drives can be used simultaneously in a pool. The fastest media is used for caching. The Ready Node for this solution provides various options for performance and sizes of drives. NVMe is the fastest available media. HDDs are the least expensive media that can be used to maximize capacity. Multi-use SSDs are in the middle of the spectrum, balancing cost and capacity.

To determine the capacity and the number of required drives, use volume sizing guidelines, approximate sizes of databases, and expected growth. Select caching media to supply the required amount of IOPS for the database. Volumes are data stores that hold files for workloads that are running on the server. They are used to store Hyper-V files, including VHD and VHDx files. All volumes are accessible to all servers within a cluster. While configuring volumes, consider the following recommendations:

• Make the number of volumes a multiple of the number of servers within the cluster.

• Create mirrored volumes for hot SQL Server data. Mirrored volumes provide the maximum performance for mixed read-write workloads.

• Use dual parity to maximize the available capacity for a SQL Server data warehouse workload.

• Limit the number of volumes to 32 per cluster.

For more information about volumes and volume planning, see Planning volumes in Storage Spaces Direct on the Microsoft website.

Drive selection

Volume configuration

Windows Server and Hyper-V configuration

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Design Guide

The default settings for the write-back cache in S2D automatically size the cache based on preset factors. However, some volumes might require high IOPS. For such volumes, S2D allows a fixed amount of cache to be assigned. You can use the PowerShell parameter –WriteCacheSize in the New-Volume command for this purpose. Dell EMC recommends that you set the –WriteCacheSize parameter when you create the tempdb volume. In OLTP scenarios, you can also use this parameter to assign the volume that stores the log files.

Note: Use the –WriteCacheSize parameter with caution. Misconfiguration can cause performance degradation.

Windows Server and Hyper-V configuration Consider the following best practices for configuring the Windows Server operating system:

• Use an allocation unit size of 64 KB to format the volume that stores the database files.

• Enable Windows Lock Pages in Memory (LPIM) policy by using a domain user account for the SQL Server service identity. The LPIM policy determines which accounts can use a process to keep data in physical memory. This prevents the Windows operating system from paging out a significant amount of data from physical memory to virtual memory on disk.

Consider the following best practices for configuring the Hyper-V host and deploying VMs:

• Do not over commit resources. Hyper-V allows overcommitting resources such as CPU and network. However, overcommitting leads to performance degradation when the resource usage exceeds the available resources.

• Provision either static or dynamic memory, depending on the workload in consideration. For more information, see Memory settings.

• Provision compute resources to optimize use. A vCPU is a representation of the physical core of a processor, or threads or logical processors in the core. In Hyper-V, you can adjust the relative weights and reserves for a VM by going to Settings > Processor. If CPU resources are overcommitted, setting the weights and reserves optimizes the way these resources are used. You can prioritize or deprioritize VMs based on your needs.

• Use fixed-size virtual hard disks (VHD/VHDX) for production workloads. Using dynamic virtual hard disks can result in occasional pauses when the dynamic disks have to be resized. Use dynamic disks for noncritical test environments or nonproduction environments.

• Use separate VHDs/VHDXs for operating system, SQL Server data files, and SQL Server log files to rule out disk contention and ensure the best performance.

Cache management for SQL Server

Windows Server configuration

Hyper-V configuration

SQL Server configuration

14 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

SQL Server configuration This section provides guidelines and best practices to optimize a virtualized SQL Server environment.

For SQL Server 2017, VM memory can be allocated either dynamically or statically. To decide between dynamic and static memory allocation, consider the following factors:

• How frequently you monitor your database

• The VM size (size of the processors, memory, and other resources) as compared to the size of a single NUMA node on the host’s physical architecture

• Preference between performance and levels of scalability

In general, choose dynamic memory allocation when VMs are unmonitored and are relatively small, and when scalability is preferred over performance. For larger production VMs that are reasonably monitored, choose static memory allocation for better and more consistent performance.

Dynamic memory allocation For more information about dynamic memory allocation, see Running SQL Server with Hyper-V Dynamic Memory in the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) library.

Consider the following recommendations for dynamic memory:

• Determine startup RAM and minimum memory values based on your needs. Microsoft recommends leaving the max server memory value at its default setting, which allows SQL Server to manage memory dynamically. However, Dell EMC recommends that you change this value, as needed, if one or both of the following apply:

You are running multiple applications on the VM.

You can reasonably ascertain the maximum amount of memory that you want to assign to SQL Server.

• Set min server memory (default value is zero) based on usage and performance considerations because dynamic memory is enabled for the VM.

• Set reserves for the VM by using the Memory Buffer option. Base the amount of reserved memory on the min server memory setting for SQL Server and memory required for any other applications and the operating system.

Static memory allocation Consider the following recommendations for static memory allocation:

• To maximize performance, assign memory to a VM based on its virtual and physical NUMA architecture.

• To ensure optimal performance, disable the NUMA Spanning option for the Hyper-V host so that each virtual NUMA node is backed by a single NUMA node.

Note: Use the NUMA Spanning option with caution. Hyper-V will not start, restore, or accept a live migration for a VM if the hypervisor is unable to map each virtual NUMA node to a physical NUMA node.

Memory settings

DD Boost configuration

15 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

• Set max server memory and min server memory values based on the amount of memory you want to reserve for the operating system, typical requirements of your SQL Server, and other performance considerations. For more information, see Blitz Result: Memory Dangerously Low or Max Memory Too High.

For SQL Server parallelism settings, consider the following recommendations:

• Max Degree of Parallelism—This SQL Server configuration option controls the number of processor cores that are used for the parallel execution of a query. If the SQL Server VM migrates from hosts with different core configurations, leave this setting at 0 (all cores exposed to SQL Server); however, if that is not the case, use a different value. This value is tightly integrated with the workload and must be chosen carefully to avoid regressive parallelism.

• Cost Threshold for Parallelism—This SQL Server configuration option specifies a threshold at which query plans run in parallel. Change the value of this setting from its default value of 5 to 50. You can adjust this number further depending on the workload requirements.

For more information about parallelism settings, see MAXDOP of Confusion.

DD Boost configuration Dell EMC DD Boost software, an option that is available for all Data Domain systems, has two components—a plug-in that runs on the backup server or client and a component that runs on the Data Domain systems. All connectivity between components is through industry-standard Ethernet or Fiber Channel. DD Boost software provides:

• Distributed segment processing—Distributes parts of the deduplication process from the Data Domain system to the backup server or client, increasing backup application performance by up to 50 percent

• Managed file replication—Enables backup applications to manage Data Domain replication with full catalog awareness

• Advanced load balancing and link failover—Provides link aggregation for load balancing and link failover, eliminating the need for network layer aggregation

Consider the following best practices for improving database backup and restore performance using DD Boost software for Microsoft SQL Server:

• If the Data Domain system reports reaching a stream limit, reduce the number of stripes that are being used by the operations that are running.

• To ensure the consistency of the backups on the Data Domain system, configure all the backups of a SQL Server instance to use the same Data Domain system and path.

• Do not perform five or more parallel Microsoft application agent SQL-CLR jobs. For each SQL-CLR procedure or function, the SQL Server database allocates a new thread from its thread pool and runs the SQL-CLR procedure or function in the context of that thread. The allocated thread is reclaimed in the SQL server thread pool only after the SQL-CLR function or procedure is run. If you configure many SQL-CLR jobs to run at the same time, SQL Server allocates many threads from the same thread pool and can eventually be starved for available threads and other

Parallelism settings

Sample implementation: OLTP workload

16 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

related resources, which affects the overall performance. Be cautious when deciding on the number of parallel SQL-CLR jobs.

Sample implementation: OLTP workload This section outlines a SQL Server sample solution for an OLTP workload that is configured on a four-node Dell EMC S2D all-flash Ready Node cluster. The cluster supports up to 13,350 average transactions per second (TPS) on a database size of up to 4 TB with submillisecond storage latency. This sample implementation includes integration with Data Domain DD6300 as a backup and recovery appliance with DD Boost software for Microsoft SQL Server.

The following figure illustrates the solution architecture for this sample implementation.

Figure 4. Sample OLTP workload solution architecture

Overview and architecture

Sample implementation: OLTP workload

17 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

The following figure illustrates the virtualization architecture for this sample implementation.

Figure 5. Sample OLTP workload virtualization architecture

Sample implementation: OLTP workload

18 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

The following table lists the components for this implementation. Table 4. Sample workload solution configuration

Component type Component

Server 4 x Dell EMC PowerEdge R640

Processor 8 x Intel Xeon Platinum 8160 processors 24C @ 2.1 GHz

Memory 768 GB (24 x 32 GB 2,666 MT/s DIMM) per server

Storage controller 4 x internal HBA330

Storage–SSDs (cache) 10 x 1.92 TB Toshiba SAS

Network card • Add-on: 4 x Intel Ethernet 10G 4P X710/I350 rNDC (10 GbE) • Add-on: 4 x Mellanox Connect-X-4 Lx dual port (25 GbE)

Network switch—backend

• 2 x Dell EMC Networking S4048–ON • 2 x Dell EMC Networking S5048-ON

Network switch—management

1 x Dell EMC Networking S3048–ON

Backup appliance 1 x Dell EMC Data Domain DD6300

The following table provides the implementation details for this implementation. Table 5. Workload implementation details

Specification Configuration

Number of VMs 8

Number of database VHDs | Size/VHD 8 | 700 GB

Number of log VHDs | Size/VHD 8 | 300 GB

Number of tempdb VHDs | Size/VHD 8 | 300 GB

Backup volume on DD6300 for database backup

10 TB

Average database transaction rate 13,350/sec

Per VM configuration

vCPUs 12

Memory 224 GB

Memory for database 192 GB

We performed testing in the Dell EMC Ready Solution engineering lab on a Dell EMC S2D all-flash Ready Node using the PowerEdge R640 server. We used the industry-standard TPC-E-like benchmark.

We deployed eight OLTP databases of 500 GB each on a SQL Server 2017 instance on the S2D cluster. SQL Server binaries and VM files were kept on parity volumes (two-way mirroring). Other database files (DB, log, and tempdb files) were kept on three-way mirrored volumes. We performed a step-stress test using the Benchmark Factory tool to understand the scalability of the OLTP workload. We simulated the TPC-E workload with

OLTP performance

Sample implementation: OLTP workload

19 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

100 concurrent virtual users for each VM to stress the SQL VMs while maintaining the 1 millisecond (ms) storage latency.

The following figure shows the test methodology for implementing one VM workload at a time and linearly increasing the workload.

Figure 6. Test methodology for VM workload implementation

The following figure shows the average TPS and average query response time (AQRT) with an increasing number of VMs on a four-node S2D all-flash Ready Node cluster.

Figure 7. OLTP performance: Average TPS and AQRT with increasing number of VMs

Sample implementation: OLTP workload

20 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation Design Guide

We also tested backup and recovery of the SQL Server 2017 database using the Data Domain DD6300 appliance on the SQL Server VMs that we created on the existing S2D cluster. We configured and enabled DDBEA on the SQL Server VM and then performed backup and recovery with approximately 5 percent change in the dataset (approximately 3 percent insert and 2 percent update).

The following table and figure provide the performance data that we captured during the backup and restore testing. Table 6. Backup and restore: Performance with Data Domain DD6300 and DD Boost

Backup/restore Database backup size (GB)

Post-deduplication compression (GB)

Reduction % Average VM network throughput (MB/s)

Backup/restore time (sec)

First full backup 405.7 87.5 78.4 239 504

Second full backup with 5% change 416.3 10.18 86.8 95 234

Third full backup with 5% change 431 19.5 89.8 92 228

Full database restore 431 Not applicable Not applicable 1,239 555

Note: Reduction % = ((Pre-Comp - Post-Comp)/ Pre-Comp) * 100

Figure 8. Backup: Performance with Data Domain DD6300 and DD Boost

Backup and recovery

Conclusion

21 Dell EMC Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 with Storage Spaces Direct Ready Node Cluster Hyper-converged implementation

Design Guide

Conclusion Choosing a database platform does not have to be complex and cost a lot of money. The Dell EMC Ready Solution for SQL Server 2017 with S2D Ready Node cluster is preconfigured and comes with design and deployment guides that accelerate implementation of the platform in your data center. We validated and tested every component in the solution for ease of use and high performance. The findings were impressive:

• The initial test with one virtualized database peaked at 1,823 transactions per second (TPS). The final test with eight virtualized databases peaked at 13,351 TPS. The average increase in TPS in moving from one to eight virtualized databases was 1,669 TPS, which is near to linear scalability.

• Physical read and write latencies indicate how fast data is accessed from storage. The gold standard for all-flash storage systems is 1 ms or less for reads and writes. The four-node S2D cluster demonstrated very fast performance by delivering an average of .5 ms or less for all physical I/O.

We integrated the Dell EMC Data Domain DD6300 system into the Ready Solution for SQL Server to offer a comprehensive platform that includes database backup and recovery. Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Applications (DDBEA) enables database administrators to efficiently back up and restore their databases using native tools. Dell EMC Engineering tested the performance and space-saving technologies of the Data Domain system on the S2D cluster and achieved these results:

• The first full backup of a 405.7 GB database took 8.4 minutes and used 87.5 GB of space on the Data Domain appliance, which is a reduction of 78.4 percent.

• The second full backup of a 416.3 GB database took 3.9 minutes and used 10.18 GB of space on the Data Domain appliance, which is a reduction of 86.8 percent.

• The third full backup of a 431 GB database took 3.8 minutes and used 19.5 GB of space on the Data Domain appliance, which is a reduction of 89.9 percent.

• The full restore of the 431 GB database took 9.25 minutes.

We understand that you have many options when choosing your database infrastructure. The Ready Solution for Microsoft SQL Server with S2D is a proven solution that simplifies the architecture, enables incremental growth, and provides database performance, resiliency, and protection.