Best Practices for Tuning Microsoft SQL Server on the HP ProLiant DL980

Technical white paper | Best Practices for Tuning Microsoft SQL Server on the HP ProLiant DL980

Figure 2. Policies tab for the log disk(s)

Note

If the cache is enabled at the hardware level, the first checkbox is usually selected but the second is not. The second

checkbox is critical for maximum write performance on the log. These checkboxes can be selected while the system is

running. The performance change is immediate and does not require a reboot.

7. Click OK, select the device(s) again, and verify that the boxes are still checked.

Note

Any change in the log disk hardware or cache configuration can cause the operating system to deselect these checkboxes.

Also be aware that many if not most fibre channel RAID controllers ignore whatever Write Back cache option is selected via

the Windows interface, so you must use the RAID controller’s configuration utility to enable this option.

Note

For Windows Server 2012: The same performance related options for every disk are located under Disk > Properties >

Policies.

Segregate network processing from SQL processing

Use the alter server command in SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 to associate threads with specific processors

and to specify which processors SQL Server can use. This command supersedes the Affinity Mask and Affinity64 Mask

options used previously to perform these functions. You should also exclude SQL Server activity from any processors

assigned a NIC workload by the OS.