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

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On the second P2000 enclosure, RAID-10 is used for TempDB. This gives a boost in speed, although it makes
little difference for this particular test.
The User Log, Master Log, Master Database, Cluster Quorum, and DTC all reside on one RAID-5 array. Of
these, the User Log is the only volume that should experience any significant traffic.
Once again, small test volumes are embedded in each array. This configuration takes advantage of the
native multipath IO (MPIO) feature included with Windows Server 2008 R2.
Figure 5 shows the two previously mentioned P2000’s at the top. Below these are two HP StorageWorks
8/20q Fibre Channel Switches. At the bottom are the two DL980’s serving as nodes of the cluster.
For simplicity, each storage enclosure presents all LUNs on all ports, and each Fibre Channel switch has only
one zone encompassing all ports. MPIO is permitted to discover all paths automatically. On more complex
configurations, it might be desirable to mask or selectively present LUNs by various means, but that is
unnecessary for the small number of paths in this configuration, and beyond the scope of this paper.
During the test, each fibre link is disconnected for about a minute then reconnected. SQL is expected to
execute transactions seamlessly while this is being done. In addition, each of the fibre channel switches is
powered down in turn, to verify that SQL continues seamlessly.
Additional AJ764A host bus adapters are installed in slots 2 and 9 on each node, but not used for the
purposes of this particular test.