Proof Point: Example Clustered Microsoft SQL Server Configuration on the HP ProLiant DL980

Server Configuration

In this configuration, each node is a ProLiant DL980 containing eight 2.40 GHz Xeon E7-2870 processors (10

cores each), and 64 x 8 GB 2Rx4 PC3 10600R RAM HP P/N 500205-071 (512 GB total).

During testing, each node is taken down in turn, to ascertain that the SQL instance fails over properly. The

failover is expected to transfer all shared storage to the new active node, but is not expected to maintain

client connections. The SQL application is expected to reconnect and retry any transactions that fail during

the switchover. There is no criterion in this test for the failover time, but the database tends to become

available again in just a few minutes.

Since Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is used, a more seamless transition is possible through the new SQL Server

2012 Always On “Availability Group” feature. However, Always On Availability Group is not part of this test

case, and is beyond the scope of this paper. For more information on the Microsoft SQL Server 2012’s

Always On features, refer to the Microsoft SQL website:

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/default.aspx.

Microsoft SQL Server Overview

For this configuration, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is used, with an OLTP-type load on a 513 GB database with

300,000 customers. The available storage in this configuration would certainly support a larger database,

and the DL980 routinely handles far larger workloads. However, the database size is intentionally kept

small here for testing agility. The intention is to have SQL running continuously, recovering automatically

from various types of failure.

In general, the default settings for SQL are used, then the HP Enterprise SQL Optimizer (ESO) is run, and all

recommendations are taken. ESO is a program available at no charge from HP that compares settings on

the DL980 with established best practices, and offers to optimize these settings if desired. For more

information on HP ESO, refer to the HP ESO User Guide at: http://www.hp.com/go/proliant-DL980-docs.