March 11, 2008 at 9:26 am
Hi folks,
Just wondering if anyone can offer me any advice on a new SQL server
setup I am putting together. We are trying to squeeze as much
performance out of a new server as possible.
We are looking at getting a DL380 with a quad core xeon, 4gb ram and
looking to run windows 2003 server standard r2 edition. The question
is whether to go with the 32 bit
version of windows or the 64bit version. We will be running SQL 2000
in 32 bit mode anyway so is there really any benfit in running the 64
bit version of windows? One supplier has mentioned
that it isn't really worth it unless we are running with at least 8gb
of RAM in the machine. Anyone any ideas?
On the disk arrangements I am looking at the following setup. 2 x
72gb SAS drives RAID 1 running the system, 2 x 72gb SAS drives RAID 1
running the log files and then 3 x 146gb SAS drives
running the datafiles running RAID 5. What do you think? Is this
suitable?
Any tips or ideas greatfully received!
Thanks in advance
March 11, 2008 at 9:39 am
john fox (3/11/2008)
Hi folks,Just wondering if anyone can offer me any advice on a new SQL server
setup I am putting together. We are trying to squeeze as much
performance out of a new server as possible.
We are looking at getting a DL380 with a quad core xeon, 4gb ram and
looking to run windows 2003 server standard r2 edition. The question
is whether to go with the 32 bit
version of windows or the 64bit version. We will be running SQL 2000
in 32 bit mode anyway so is there really any benfit in running the 64
bit version of windows? One supplier has mentioned
that it isn't really worth it unless we are running with at least 8gb
of RAM in the machine. Anyone any ideas?
On the disk arrangements I am looking at the following setup. 2 x
72gb SAS drives RAID 1 running the system, 2 x 72gb SAS drives RAID 1
running the log files and then 3 x 146gb SAS drives
running the datafiles running RAID 5. What do you think? Is this
suitable?
Any tips or ideas greatfully received!
Thanks in advance
Hi,
Well, this really depends on your performance requirements, as either configuration may provide exactly what you need. Its always good to build-in some future growth in terms of choosing an operating system, thus x64 would be ideal in this situation, as this will allow you to migrate to 64-bit version of SQL Server in future, but will also support your existing 32-bit strategy today. Otherwise, going down the 32-bit path now will lead to a slightly more complex migration in future.
Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Phillip Cox
MCITP - DBAdmin
March 11, 2008 at 10:20 am
I think memory even with WOW, is a little better. Are you running Enterprise SQL?
Also, think about Win 2008 now. It's just out, so a longer life cycle for the server with that version. Should be fine as a SQL server.
As far as the discs, I've go with R1 or even add another disk and go R10 for the data. there are good reasons to avoid R5 (www.baarf.com).
Steve
March 11, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Its SQL 2000 standard we are looking at. Running in 32 bit mode on x64 boxes.
How easy is it to just switch to the 64 bit version? Does it require any changes or amends to our code or DBs
March 11, 2008 at 2:58 pm
x64/IA64 offers is the native support of larger amounts of memory (resulting in a larger buffer cache), advanced parallelisim and threading, etc.
Assuming your going to be using Windows 2003 x64 there isn't a upgrade path from the x86 database engine to the x64 database engine. You would need to resintall the database engine and migrate user databases, logins, etc.
Good read -
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/whitepapers/advantages-64bit-environment.mspx
Tommy
Follow @sqlscribeMarch 11, 2008 at 3:57 pm
We had some performance issues in our production database. Microsoft did health checkup and they have been highly recommending us to move to a 64bit setup. My 2 cents.
March 12, 2008 at 1:26 am
I often work as an advisor on database tuning for various companies and from my experience the hardware was never an issue (although it's good to have top level hardware). In most cases the problems were caused by poor design of database, missing indexes, incorrectly build SQL statements or poor implementation of stored procedures.
Before you start thinking of a new hardware you should be sure what kind of problems you have now. This can be done by means SQL Server Profiler or Performance Monitor (or both). Only after analyzing results from these programs you can tell whether better hardware would help. Otherwise it's like playing cards - you can win or not :).
Marek
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