This is the presentation I delivered at the latest BIWUG meeting. I also included a list of links underneath for people that want to know more about SQL Server

1. SQL Server for
SharePoint geeks
A gentle introduction
Thomas Vochten • September 8, 2011

2. About Me
• SharePoint Infrastructure Consultant at
Atos (before Siemens IT Solutions & Services)
• Accidental DBA
• Lousy .NET developer
thomasvochten.com
@thomasvochten

3. What we’ll cover
• Disclaimer
• Who needs a DBA anyway?
• Importance of SQL for SharePoint
• The SQL Landscape
• Configuration tips
• Common problems
• Troubleshooting Tips
• Counter Intelligence
• Resources

4. Disclaimer
• There are no exact truths in SQL
• The standard answer always is...

5. PART 1 - SETTING THE SCENE

6. Who needs a DBA anyway?
• A quick poll...
Who manages a production SQL instance
that isn’t a *real* DBA?
• Don’t worry - you’re not alone...
Meet the “Accidental” or
“Involuntary” DBA

7. Common Problems
• Data and log file management
• Backups
• Corruption
• Performance troubleshooting
• Index fragmentation
• Configuration issues

8. Importance for SharePoint
• SharePoint performance = SQL performance
• All your data is in a database
• The’re a lot of them:

9. SharePoint Databases
Other Important Considerations
• Capacity planning
• Performance planning
• HA / DR requirements
• Information Architecture
• Limits & Boundaries: from 100 GB to 200 GB to 4 TB and
beyond

10. Why SharePoint makes DBAs cry
• GUIDs all over the place
• Don’t touch! support policy

11. Getting rid of the GUID
• Grey wizard is good
• White wizard is bad

12. SQL Landscape
Software Requirements
• SharePoint 2010 requires 64 bit all the way
• SQL Server 2008 R2 is your best friend
• Other 2008 or 2005 editions are supported too
Editions
• Standard or Enterprise?

13. Standard vs Enterprise
• Hardware
Standard Enterprise
# CPU 4 8
Memory 64 GB 2 TB
• Enterprise-Only
• Snaphots
• TDE
• More online operations
• PowerPivot

14. What about RBS?
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
Pro
• Potentially cheaper storage
• Move-SPSite (after SP1)
• Disk I/O optimizations
Cons
• Backup / restore complexity
• Not supported together with mirroring
• General operational burden
• 3rd party software

15. A case for RBS
• Heavily focused on document libraries
• The vast majority ( >70%) of those files exceed 1MB in size.
• The SharePoint content databases holding these files are
relatively large ( >200GB) now or in the immediately
foreseeable future
• You have Disaster Recovery tools that are either directly RBS
aware, or have processes designed to synchronize backups
• You have highly skilled, expert SQL and Windows
administration staff that is currently or has the capacity and
directive to be well trained in RBS use, administration, and
troubleshooting
[Source: Chris Mullendore, MSFT PFE]

16. PART 2 - CONFIGURATION TIPS

17. Pre Setup (1)
• Use the latest service pack
• Consider the latest cumulative update
• Different databases: different I/O needs
TempDB
Logs
Search DB’s
Content DB’s

18. Pre Setup (2)
• Use a normal domain user account as service account
• Learn about instant file initialization
• Learn about “lock pages in memory”
• Check partition alignment
• Perform a stresstest with sqlio

19. Setup
• Choose the right product features
• Change the default database paths
• Put TempDB in the right place immediately
• Only use Windows Authentication Mode

20. Post Setup
• Make sure SQL Server Agent is started
• Check Windows Firewall
• Explore server & database options
• Minimum & maximum memory usage
• Set fill factor to 80% for SharePoint
• MAXDOP to 1 for SharePoint
• Backup compression
• Autogrowth settings
• # of database files per database
• Model database (not for SharePoint)
• Create and test SQL aliases on your SharePoint servers
• Pregrow your SharePoint databases!

21. Maintaining SQL
• Check database integrity weekly with DBCC CHECKDB
• Look at index fragmentation
• Learn about Maintenance Plans
*Source: “Database Maintenance for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products” (revised)+

22. Caution
• Shrinking database files: are you sure?
• Autoshrink: the exception to the “it depends” rule
It’s evil!

23. Common Problems, Revisited
Most common issues
• Data and log file management
• Backups
Due to lack of understanding of
• Recovery models and their influence on space and backups
• Backup types (full, differential & logs)
Recovery models
• Choosing between SIMPLE or FULL recovery model and what
they bring to the table

24. Troubleshooting Tips
Learn how to use the tools
• Perfmon
• Activity Monitor
• PAL
• Profiler
Learn the basics, like
• Don’t restart SQL server in case of corruption
• Don’t detach and reattach problematic databases

25. Counter Intelligence
Get to know your SQL server, fast!
• Blitz! scripts by Brent Ozar
• Diagnostic scripts by Glenn Berry

26. Resources
Where do I go for SQL help?
Paul Randal (blog | twitter)
Kimberly Tripp (blog| twitter)
Brent Ozar (blog| twitter)
Glenn Berry (blog| twitter)
Fancy some blogs?
http://thomaslarock.com/rankings
Get help – fast!
#sqlhelp on Twitter
We now have #sphelp too you know 

27. Quick Wins Summary
• Partition Alignment
• Instant File Initialization
• Databases & logs on different spindles
• Multiple datafiles, but not for TempDB or for logfiles
• Tune server memory usage
• Fill factor to 80%
• MAXDOP to 1
• Tune autogrowth settings
• Use SQL aliases
• Presize your databases
• Check integrity often
• No shrinking of data files (autoshrink is evil)
• Know the recovery models & their impact on drive space

28. Thank you