Submission + - help building a new MS SQL Server
Talahaski writes: I have read a lot of articles about configuring hardware for SQL but I'm a programmer and we don't have an SQL admin and I'm not an expert. Our applications using our current server have been timing out a lot and it is getting worse as the load increases over time with more applications and more user data. Our primary database is about 170GB in size and does very heavy writing and reading of bulk records at a time (It common for our app to receive, process, and insert 1-2 million records at a time from a single user)
It appears the main bottleneck is drive IO, although memory could also be a issue. CPU on average is under 30% utilized.
We are looking into purchasing a new server to solve the performance issues we are having.
If left to our network support guy, we might get a new server with more cpu cores, more memory, and similar drive setup. I don't think this would solve the issue. So I'm asking for help here.
We have at most 3U on the rack that we can use for a new server, but would really like to only use 2U. And of course the big issue comes down to cost and what we "might" be able to get approved.
The old server and drive enclosure will remain and we will move the higher volume databases to the new server.
I don't know what our IO needs are or even how to calculate them. All I am sure about is that we need a more powerful server and we need much faster IO.
Our Current server has
32GB memory, raid 1+0 (4 72GB 15K)for OS, DS2600 enclosure with 12 300GB 15K drives, one reserved as a backup. These 11 drives are split to make 3 logical drives. Raid 5 (4 drives) for log files and tempdb and also used for backup files. Raid 5(3 drives) for index files, Raid 5 (4 drives) for DB files.
I know raid 1+0 will give much better performance, but it also requires more drives. Does it make more sense to have one larger raid 1+0 with many drives, or multiple raid drives?
I know the more drives the better, how can I maximize drives for the space available?
Any help would be appreciated, feel free to provide links to server configurations, enclosures, or other hardware.
It appears the main bottleneck is drive IO, although memory could also be a issue. CPU on average is under 30% utilized.
We are looking into purchasing a new server to solve the performance issues we are having.
If left to our network support guy, we might get a new server with more cpu cores, more memory, and similar drive setup. I don't think this would solve the issue. So I'm asking for help here.
We have at most 3U on the rack that we can use for a new server, but would really like to only use 2U. And of course the big issue comes down to cost and what we "might" be able to get approved.
The old server and drive enclosure will remain and we will move the higher volume databases to the new server.
I don't know what our IO needs are or even how to calculate them. All I am sure about is that we need a more powerful server and we need much faster IO.
Our Current server has
32GB memory, raid 1+0 (4 72GB 15K)for OS, DS2600 enclosure with 12 300GB 15K drives, one reserved as a backup. These 11 drives are split to make 3 logical drives. Raid 5 (4 drives) for log files and tempdb and also used for backup files. Raid 5(3 drives) for index files, Raid 5 (4 drives) for DB files.
I know raid 1+0 will give much better performance, but it also requires more drives. Does it make more sense to have one larger raid 1+0 with many drives, or multiple raid drives?
I know the more drives the better, how can I maximize drives for the space available?
Any help would be appreciated, feel free to provide links to server configurations, enclosures, or other hardware.