Getting Partition Offset information with Powershell
Disk partition alignment is a big issue, with unaligned partitions contributing to disk bottlenecks and various other problems as a result. In this post, Jonathan walks us through a powershell script used to collect this information, and when combined with other scripts, formatted in a nice HTML report ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - SQLBlog.com
Using Diskpart and WMIC to Check Disk Partition Alignment
In this post, Paul talks about the disk partition alignment problem, and then a couple of tools that can be used for inspecting the alignment offset values on a server's disk partitions ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com
Bob Dorr's SQL Server I/O Presentation
Bob Dorr gives us his slide deck and speaker notes for his legendary presentation on SQL Server I/O. Don't miss this one ... Source : Bob Dorr - CSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post
Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for SQL Server
Covering both the historical background information surrounding partition alignment and the negative performance impact unaligned partitions can have, this paper is essential reading for anyone involved in storage configuration for SQL Server systems. It provides actual results that demonstrate the performance impact of unaligned partitions, and includes a discussion of how Windows Server 2008 deals with this situation ... Source : Jimmy May and Denny Lee - Best Practices Article - Microsoft.com
Predeployment I/O Best Practices
When configuring a new server for SQL Server or when adding or modifying the disk configuration of an existing system, it is good practice to determine the capacity of the I/O subsystem prior to deploying SQL Server. This white paper discusses validating and determining the capacity of an I/O subsystem. A number of tools are available for performing this type of testing. This white paper focuses on the SQLIO.exe tool, but also compares all available tools. It also covers basic I/O configuration best practices for SQL Server 2005 ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article
Physical Database Storage Design
One of the classics. This downloadable whitepaper covers the all important process of designing storage for SQL Server. As well as an overview of the differences in OLTP/OLAP workloads, it includes details of sizing a system for performance and throughput, RAID levels and the different types of storage systems available today ... Source : Microsoft.com - Whitepaper
SQLIOSim
SQLIOSim is a correctness and stress tool (not a performance measurement tool). Use this to verify your IO subsystem is functioning correctly under heavy loads. In this SQL Server Storage Engine Blog post, links are provided for download, and the usage of the tool is discussed ... Source : Jerome Halmans - SQL Server Storage Engine - Blog Post
SQLIOSim II
SQLIOSim is used to validate the integrity of the IO Subsystem. In this post, the PSS Engineers provide an overview of how this tool works ... Source : PSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post
SQLIOSIM; Under the covers
In this post, the PSS SQL Server Engineers provide more information on a number of aspects of SQLIOSIM including Running Average, Target Duration and Discarded Buffers ... Source : PSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post
Understanding SQLIOSIM Output
Kevin shares a conversation with Jimmy May on understanding SQLIOSIM output ... Source : Kevin Kline - SQLBlog.com
Benchmarking with SQLIO
In this article, Linchi demonstrates how the file size used in SQLIO tests can have a dramatic impact on the results ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLTeam.com
SQLIO Disk Subsystem Benchmark Tool
SQLIO is a tool provided by Microsoft which can also be used to determine the I/O capacity of a given configuration ... Source : Microsoft.com - Download
Interpreting SQLIOSIM Output
Kevin shares the results of a conversation with Bob Dorr and Jose Fortuny on the output from SQLIOSIM. Be sure to check the follow up post here ... Source : Kevin Kline - SQLBlog.com
Disk failures in the real world: What does a Mean Time to Failure of 1 million hours mean to you?
A great read comparing real world disk replacement rates compared to published Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) rates ... Source : usenix.org - whitepaper