Knut Relbe-Moe presented on best practices for optimizing SQL Server performance for SharePoint environments. He provided 13 tips including using dedicated SQL instances, proper disk configuration including SSDs formatted at 64k blocks, adequate RAM and CPU, tempdb optimization, and recovery model configuration. The presentation emphasized following Microsoft's guidance and best practices for SQL Server installation and maintenance to ensure the backend database provides optimal performance for SharePoint.

1. May 7th, 2016
SharePoint Saturday
Madrid
Getting SQL Spinning with SharePoint –
Best Practices for the Back End
Knut Relbe-Moe

2. Knut Relbe-Moe
Chief Technical Architect
Advania Knowledge Factory
http://sharepointblog.no
@shareptkarm
Knut is a Office Server & Services MVP, Nintex vTE, SharePoint and migration expert,
conference speaker and blogger. Knut is MCSE SharePoint, MCSA Office 365 and MCT.
He delivers both engaging keynotes and highly technical sessions (level 400) on many
different subjects in the Office 365 space. His job as an architect is to engage people and
companies in evaluating and adopting new technologies as well as running key projects
as a consultant. His core competence is to explain complex scenarios and make it
understandable by combining technical insight and business value.

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4. Okay… Something is wrong with this picture…

5. MS SQL Server is like the brain of your SharePoint
environment

6. So if the brain works slow, everything else will be
slow….

7. 99.9% of SharePoint content stored in SQL Server
 Farm Configuration information stored in configuration db
 Central Administration content stored in seperate content db
 Most Service Applications have at least one db
 All Web Applications have at least one content db

8. How to fix this
 Follow the guidelines in this presentation
 Read and understand this whitepaper from Vlad Catrienscu
 Maximizing SQL 2012 Performance for SharePoint 2013 WhitePaper
 If you have to reinstall MS SQL server as a new instance with the correct
settings.

9. Agenda
 Foundamentals
 13 tips to get your SQL Spinning
 Summary

11. SQL Server configuration
For SharePoint 2013:
• SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1
• SQL Server 2012 (SP1 for BI)
• SQL Server 2014 (SP2013 SP1 & April CU)
For SharePoint 2016:
• SQL Server 2014
• SQL Server 2016
Use a dedicated instance
Run the service with a Managed account
•No specific permission
Use named
instances
SharePoint

13. Physical SQL Server will always outperform a virtual SQL server with the
same specs, but what shall you choose.
Pros :
High availability because of the hypervisor, not because of clustering
Easier to scale up & down
Can be easier to recover at Disaster Recovery
Cons:
Very heavily loaded VMs have seen disk I/O issues
Over allocation of a virtual host. If you have too much running on a host, it's not just I/O that could be impacted.
Harder to protect
Physical vs Virtual

15. DISKS
 You should invest in as fast disk as possible
 If you run on a Virtual Server, consider physical disks for the SQL server
 SSD or SAN
 If you have physical SQL server you should use at least 6 Disks:
1. TempDB
2. TempDB Logs
3. SharePoint Databases
4. SharePoint Databases Logs
5. OS
6. SQL binaries and other application Installs

16. DISKS
• You have a farm where most of the content is only read and downloaded
• Your users will be collaborating, uploading documents, content
Speed/Scenario Read Intensive Scenario (ex Public Website)
Fastest Tempdb data files and transaction logs
. Database data files
. Search databases, except for the Search administration database
Slowest Database transaction log files
Speed/Scenario Write Intensive Scenario ( collaborative workspace)
Fastest Tempdb data files and transaction logs
. Database transaction log files
. Search databases, except for the Search administration database
Slowest Database data files

18. RAM & CPU
• Your SQL Server needs to have enough RAM to function properly.
• If your SQL Server runs only SharePoint, here are the minimum
requirements
Small Farm
Deployment
(0-500GB of
Data)
Medium
Farm
Deployment
(501-1TB of
data)
Large Farm
Deployment
(1-2TB of
Data)
Very Large
Farm Deployment
(2-5 TB of Data)
Special
Cases
Ram
Required
8GB 16GB 32 GB 64GB 64GB+
CPU 4 4 8 8 8

20. DISKS
 SQL server reads and writes 64k at a time
 So change your allocation size from the 4K default to 64K.
 This small change alone, will improve your SQL performance by up to
30%
Use chkdsk
<drive>to Verify
Use Format to Configure:
• Format <drive> /Q /FS:NTFS /A:64K /V:<volume>
/Y

22. Server Configuration – Collation
 SharePoint server 2013 is built to use Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS. This
is a quote from Microsoft to prove it:
 “We support any CI collation for the SQL instance (for master, tempdb
databases). However we recommend using
Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS as the instance default collation (master,
tempdb databases).”
 CI – (Case Insensitive) A and a ARE treated as the same character.
 AS – (Accent Sensitive) a and á are NOT treated as the same character.
 KS – (Kana Sensitive) Japanese Hirakana and Katakana characters which look the same are NOT treated as
the same character.
 WS – (Width Sensitive) Single-Byte and Double-Byte versions of the same character are NOT treated as
the same character.

23. Server Configuration
For SharePoint 2013:
• SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1
• SQL Server 2012 (SP1 for BI)
• SQL Server 2014 (SP2013 SP1 & April CU)
For SharePoint 2016:
• SQL Server 2014
• SQL Server 2016
Use named
instances
SharePoint
Use a dedicated
instance
Run the service
with a Managed
account
•No specific permission

24. Server Configuration
Use alias for the connection string
• Client alias or DNS alias (preferred)
Good practice : every SP Content db must be created (and documented) by a DBA
after a strict capacity plan

25. Server Configuration
Use alias for the connection string
• Client alias or DNS alias (preferred)
Good practice : every SP Content db must be created (and documented) by a DBA
after a strict capacity plan

26. Server Configuration
 Backups
 Compression

28. Thomas Larock from SQL Rockstar explains this:
SQL Server (and other database systems such as Oracle and Sybase)
need to read data pages into their internal memory before they can be
used. Of course your server needs memory to operate as well. When
your database engine and your server are competing for the same
memory resources, you get bad performance. You want your server and
your database engine to be like dancing partners, and less like my kids
fighting over the last cupcake.
Max Memory

30. Optimize TempdB
 Split across n locations
 N = total number of physical cores > super myth
 All temp files need to have the same size
 Size of largest content dB or 10 % of Total Content DB’s Size whichever is bigger
 The fastest disk possible | Place on a different Drive than the Content Database
 Simple Recovery mode
 Place on Different Drive Than Content Databases

31. Model Database
 SQL Server uses the Model database as a template for creating new
user databases
 So therefor make sure that Model database have correct initial size and
growth settings.
 The log should be around 25% of the initial size.
 The auto growth is your insurance policy if your current database size has been reached.

32. Script

34. Auto Create Statistics
 Do not enable auto-create statistics on a server that hosts SQL Server
and SharePoint Server
 Enabling auto-create statistics is not supported for SharePoint Server

36. USE “DBA” created databases
 Sizing
 Autogrowth
 DO NOT USE SIMPLE RECOVERY
 Unless you understand the implications

38. Maintenance Plan
 Create a maintenance plan to backup databases, rebuild indexes and
checking the logical and physical integrity of your database
 Make sure you don’t run backup when heavy timer jobs runs in the
SharePoint environment, like midnight

39. Recovery mode
Model db : recovery
model = full
Tempdb : recovery
model = simple
SharePoint DB :
recovery model ?
Contend DB = full Config DB= simple
Services App DBs= it
depends :
•http://technet.micro
soft.com/en-
us/library/cc678868.
aspx

41. Script your SQL Server installation
 https://sqlserverfinebuild.codeplex.com/

43. Always install SQL Alias in SharePoint
Use alias for the connection string
• Client alias or DNS alias (preferred)

45. Using SQL Server Resource Governor to optimize
Search Database usage
 Part of SQL Server Enterprise (since SQL 2008)
 Limits CPU and memory usage on some DBs (and IO in SQL
Server 2014)
 like search DBs
 Allow less CPU & mem & IO usage during work hours
 Allow more CPU & mem & IO usage during off hours

47. 10 simple tips to maximize performance
http://www.sharepointblog.no/?p=85
1. SSD Disk or better
2. Formating disk with 64K
3. Language corralation Latin_CI_AS_KS_WS
4. Maximum memory
5. Changed Sizes on Model database
6. Default fill factor to 80
7. Switched of autocreate statistics
8. Max Degree of Parallelism – set to 1 (it has to be)
9. Changed Initial Size & Autogrow on temp database, and created extra temp files for the amount
of processors.
10. Don’t do backups at midnight.
Maximizing SQL 2012 Performance for SharePoint 2013 WhitePaper by Vlad Catrinescu

48. Questions?
@shareptkarm
Office Server &
Services

49. Knut Relbe-Moe
Chief Technical Architect
Knut.relbe-moe@knowledgefactory.com
shareptkarm@outlook.com

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