What are the best practices for building and managing very large database environments? How can we get an advantage from implementing HP's FastTrack Solution? We will share some real-world tips and tricks around the management of multi-terabyte databases.

1. Is “the bigger the better” valid in the
database world?
Best practices around VLDBs
HP FastTrack Solution
Tips, tricks and gotchas with multi-TB databases

2. About me
Ivan Donev, MCT
SQL Server Technology Team Lead, HP
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3. Agenda
 Introduction
 Best practices in configuration
 HP FastTrack Reference Architecture 4.0
 Share the experience
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4. Introduction
 More data
 Needs larger hardware
 Needs optmization
 Needs time
 Requires more responsiblities
 More responsibilities
 Need more attention
 Require more knowledge
 Give you more headaches
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5. Best practices - IO
 Hardware - trust your vendor
 Follow the Storage Top 10 Best Practices
 HBA Queue Depth
 TEST, TEST, TEST
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6. Best practices – SQL Server
 Startup options
 -E and T1117
 T834?
 MaxServerMemory
 MaxDop – never leave it to 0
 Local policy
 Lock pages in memory
 Perform Volume maintenance tasks
 Resource governor!
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7. Best practices – Inside SQL Server
 TempDB
 Microsoft rules – 1 file per CPU
 Experience
 Partitioning
 Compression – be careful!
 Column Store index
 Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance!!!
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8. HP FastTrack 4.0
 Prebuild Hardware for best
performance
 Configuration Guide
 Performance
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9. Let’s talk about reality
 The hardware - HP DL980 G7
 2TB RAM
 8x8-core Intel Xeon => 128 logical CPUs
 Storage – dedicated P2000 and XP24000
 The Software
 Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1
 SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with CU7
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11. Let’s talk about reality - servicing
 T834 flag or why the engine is not booting up
 Patching and ugrade
 Upgrade from SQL Server 2005 to 2008 R2
 Approach
 Licensing
 Bugs
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12. Let’s talk about reality - maintenance
 Examine fragmentation
 Do not forget about statistics
 Check the integrity
 Size matters
 Autogrowth and proportional fill
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13. Let’s talk about reality - compression
 Estimate compression gain
 Compress and keep compressing
 How do we reclaim the space?
 Moving object to new file
 Shrinking
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14. IS THE BIGGER THE BETTER?
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16. Sponsors