Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reference Architecture Rob \barkz\ Barker, Solutions Architect Version 1.0 Version 1.0 Table of Contents 3 Executive summary 3 Goals and objectives 3 Audience 3 Summary of findings 4 Pure Storage Introduction 6 Reference Architecture Design Principles 7 Configuration Overview 14 Host Management 17 Disk Management 27 Microsoft SQL Server Installation 38 Configuring TempDb 39 Backup & Recovery 43 Conclusion © Pure Storage 2011 | 2 Executive Summary This document provides a reference architecture for deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 on the Pure Storage FlashArray. This document includes planning recommendations, configuration best practices as well as performance findings. This reference architecture has been validated against: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Data Center Edition (64-bit) Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise (64-bit), Service Pack 1 Pure Storage FlashArray 420 (FA-420) Purity Operating Environment 4.0.0 Although this reference architecture has been validated against Microsoft SQL Server 2012, previous versions such as SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 are supported. Goals and Objectives A key tenet with Pure Storage FlashArray is the simplicity of management and this document is intended to demonstrate how easily Microsoft SQL Server 2012 can be deployed and managed on a Pure Storage FlashArray. We will cover all the details from volume layout, storage provisioning, host connectivity, Microsoft SQL Server deployment to backup and recovery using snapshots and Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). In addition to management simplicity we will show the gains in performance for database workloads, data reduction savings and application protection using our core technologies of FlashProtect, FlashReduce and FlashRecover respectively. Audience This document is intended for Database Administrators (DBAs), Storage Administrators, System Administrators and anybody who wants to deploy a Microsoft SQL Server solution on a Pure Storage FlashArray. This is a technical document that assumes a working knowledge of Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server setup and configuration, administration of Windows Server, basic knowledge of Windows PowerShell and familiarity with storage provisioning and networking. These are not prerequisites to reviewing this document. Summary of Findings This reference architecture can be treated as a building block on how to deploy a physical instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2012. Even though this reference architecture focuses on an Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) workload other database workloads can be considered to leverage the same results. You can add additional server or infrastructure components to expand this architecture to support additional physical SQL Server instances. As part of the configuration for this paper a 2TB OLTP database was deployed and tested to © Pure Storage 2011 | 3 simulate a real-world trading application running on a Pure Storage FA-420 FlashArray. Throughout the testing the FlashArray delivered consistently >100,000 IOPs, latency of 0.60 ms and provided consistent bandwidth of 811 MB/s. Data reduction for the test OLTP dataset was 5 to 1. This data reduction average was calculated using three volumes; one system database volume (5.4 to 1), one temp database volume (4.7 to 1) and the user database volume (4.8 to 1). These data reduction averages will vary based on the dataset. Taking snapshots is quick and easy through the Pure Storage Web Management GUI or via the REST API and PowerShell to support Dev/Test scenarios or create copies of database for nightly reporting processes. Ensure application consistent protection using the Pure Storage Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Provider. Pure Storage Introduction Pure Storage is the leading all-flash enterprise array vendor, committed to enabling companies of all sizes to transform their businesses with flash. Built on 100% MLC flash, Pure Storage FlashArray delivers all-flash enterprise storage that is 10X faster, more space and power efficient, more reliable, and infinitely simpler, and yet typically cost less than traditional performance disk arrays. FA-405 FA-420 FA-450 Pure Storage FlashArray FA-400 Series is ideal for: Accelerating Databases and Applications Speed transactions by 10x with consistent low latency, enable online data analytics across wide datasets, and mix production, analytics, dev/test, and backup workloads without fear. Virtualizing and Consolidating Workloads Easily accommodate the most IO-hungry Tier 1 workloads, increase consolidation rates (thereby reducing servers), simplify VI administration, and accelerate common administrative tasks. © Pure Storage 2011 | 4 Delivering the Ultimate Virtual Desktop Experience Support demanding users with better performance than physical desktops, scale without disruption from pilot to >1000’s of users, and experience all-flash performance for under $100/desktop. Protecting and Recovering Vital Data Assets Provide an always-on protection for business-critical data, maintain performance even under failure conditions, and recover instantly with FlashRecover. Pure Storage FlashArray sets the benchmark for all-flash enterprise storage arrays. It delivers: Consistent Performance FlashArray delivers consistent <1ms average latency. Performance is optimized for the real-world applications workloads that are dominated by IO sizes of 32K or larger vs. 4K/8K hero performance benchmarks. Full performance is maintained even under failures/updates. Less Cost than Disk Inline de-duplication and compression deliver 5 – 10x space savings across broad set of IO workloads including Databases, Virtual Machines and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Mission-critical Resiliency FlashArray delivers >99.999% proven availability, as measured across the Pure Storage installed base and does so with non-disruptive everything without performance impact. Disaster Recovery Built-In FlashArray offers native, fully integrated, data reduction-optimized backup and disaster recovery at no additional cost. Setup disaster recovery with policy-based automation within minutes. And, recover instantly from local, space-efficient snapshots or remote replicas. Simplicity Built-In FlashArray offers game-changing management simplicity that makes storage installation, configuration, provisioning and migration a snap. No more managing performance, RAID, tiers or caching. Achieve optimal application performance without any tuning at any layer. Manage the FlashArray the way you like it: Web-based GUI, CLI, VMware vCenter, Rest API, or OpenStack. Pure Storage FlashArray FA-400 Series includes FA-405, FA-420, and FA-450. A FlashArray is available for any application and any budget! © Pure Storage 2011 | 5 Table 1. Pure Storage FlashArray 400 Series Specifications. Start Small and Grow Online FlashArray scales from smaller workloads to data center-wide consolidation. And because upgrading performance and capacity on the FlashArray is always non-disruptive, you can start small and grow without impacting mission-critical applications. Coupled with Forever Flash, a new business model for storage acquisition and lifecycles, FlashArray provides a simple and economical approach to evolutionary storage that extends the useful life of an array and does away with the incumbent storage vendor practices of forklift upgrades and maintenance extortion. Reference Architecture Design Principles One of the biggest issues when deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 on any SAN storage is the complexities involved in setting up the fabric, provisioning the storage, connecting the newly provisioned LUNs to the host(s) and then setting up or migrating databases. The emphasis of this document is to illustrate the simplicity of using Pure Storage to host Microsoft SQL Server workloads. With the above said, this reference architecture has the following goals: Simplicity. The environment is built on standard components with a minimum of non-default settings and configuration overhead. Resilience. The environment can tolerate a fault in any component without any service disruption. Performance. We are able to sustain throughput and transaction rates that meet the needs of your most demanding workloads. Low Cost. The environment is built with commodity hardware sized to the minimal requirements to meet performance and availability goals. We also provision storage as efficiently as possible. Manageability. Administrative tasks such as storage provisioning should be as simple as possible. © Pure Storage 2011 | 6 Flexibility. Adjustments to the environment, such as adding or removing servers, are seamless. Configuration Overview The following section describes the different components and configurations for the test environment. The diagram below illustrates the hardware configuration. Figure 1. Component connectivity. Pure Storage FlashArray FA-420 configuration The FlashArray FA-420 configuration comprised of two active/active controllers and two shelves of 5.5TB of raw flash memory for a total of 11TB of raw storage. Four Fibre Channel ports per controller were connected to one Cisco MDS 9148 8Gb SAN switches in a highly redundant configuration as shown in Figure 1. Table A below describes the specifications of the FlashArray FA-420. © Pure Storage 2011 | 7 Component Description Controllers Two active/active controllers which provided highly redundant SAS connectivity (24Gb) to two shelves and were interconnected for HA via two redundant InfiniBand connections (56Gb) Shelves Two flash