Executive Summary
The demands on business to deliver more with less, differentiate services, and fundamentally continue to adapt and change to the "speed of business" has never been more than it is today. These business challenges always flow down to IT and applications. IT has more and more demands to "be more flexible," "react faster," "be more innovative," "scale larger," "improve performance," all while making sure the applications never go down!
Adapting your IT to reflect the Speed of Business is ultimately vital in today's dynamic and fast-moving world. As we drill down into those applications at enterprises large and small - Microsoft SQL Server is at the heart and core of those applications. As such, the demands on IT organizations from their leadership to the DBA’s to the Storage Architects are ever-increasing efforts to get the most out of SQL Server.
This SQL server storage reference architecture is a template for customers and partners:
- Who are looking for a step-function change in SQL Server to optimize their environment
- Eliminate storage as the bottleneck
- Want to do more with the same SQL Server licenses and same hardware it runs on (optimize costs)
- Looking to leverage VMware to optimize assets and operational efficiencies, but feel:
- The VMware performance “tax” is too high
- Some may have a few applications they can’t move as the performance penalty will be too high.
- Looking to change to a new storage infrastructure and are interested in seeing how and what that infrastructure can provide to SQL Server
Goals And Objectives
This document tells you how to deploy SQL Server on a Pavilion HyperParallel Flash Array (HFA). This includes information on why a high-performance storage array with ultra-low latency can benefit SQL Server and how to tune SQL Server to get the most out of your investment. It also includes performance testing numbers, scaling a SQL Server configuration, network considerations, and "how and why" latency matters in SQL Server.
To learn more about Pavilion or gain access to our detailed Deployment and Implementation guides for SQL Server on bare metal and VMware, email us Pavilion at info@pavilion.io or fill out our Contact Us form. These guides give step-by-step instructions for deploying SQL Server in general and optimizing SQL Server to take the best advantage of the Pavilion HyperParallel Flash Array.
Audience
This Reference Architecture is intended for IT Leadership, Database Administrators (DBAs), Storage Administrators, System Administrators, and anyone who wants to learn more about how and why the Pavilion HFA enables a Microsoft SQL Server solution to perform more consistently, scale more effectively, and fundamentally run faster. The benefits of the Pavilion HFA for SQL Server do not require a bare-metal Windows platform but benefit a virtual infrastructure, like VMware, also. This document assumes a working knowledge of Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server setup and configuration, administration of Windows Server, and familiarity with storage provisioning and networking.
Structure
This Reference Architecture of SQL servers starts with an overview of the Pavilion HFA to give the reader an understanding of how the Pavilion HFA architecture is different and how it can optimize SQL Server to take advantage of its features. Next, it covers how to take advantage of the Pavilion HFA in a SQL Server environment, including performance and latency numbers. Subsequent sections include recommendations for a SQL Server environment using the Pavilion HFA.