Get the Most out of SQL Server Standard Edition Or How to be a SQL Miser

About Diane Since 1984, I have been in IT. My SQL language and data management experience began in the 90’s, using an Informix database with ARC/Info. I subsequently migrated the data into Oracle, becoming an Oracle Certified DBA. In the early 2000’s I developed data models with ERwin and databases in Oracle and SQL Server for web sites. In 2002 I became a SQL Server DBA for a very busy data center. Currently, as a SQL Server DBA at Economic Research Institute, I manage the database systems in a data center and a co- location site.

Why Standard Edition? SQL Server Enterprise Edition (EE) far more expensive than Standard Edition (SE) Many small business systems are SE Some applications use SE

Pricing Windows 2008 R2 EditionCost Standard Edition$1,209 Enterprise Edition$3,999 SQL Server 2008 R2 EditionCost Per Processor Standard Edition$7, Enterprise Edition$27,495.00

Planning Identify which servers and applications might not require EE or are already SE What features do you really need? What actually improves performance for SE?

EE Features (not in SE) Primarily for very large databases Concurrency – Transaction isolation Level Snapshot Partitioning Data Compression Backup Compression (before 2008 R2) Online Indexing Clustering more than 2 nodes Resource Governor

Limit Development Features Do not want to be dependent on EE features Use the same configuration for development as production Develop and test in SE

Maximize Resources RAM Windows Critical SQL Server After Windows is optimized

Maximize Resources CPU 64 bit better than 32 bit Dual core better than single core Quad core better than dual core

Maximize Resources I/O Same basic tuning as with EE Without the EE features

System Recommendations Windows Server Enterprise 64 bit Very important Higher maximum RAM SQL Server Standard Edition 64 bit 64 bit is highly recommended over 32 bit

Windows 2008 Windows 2008 R2 (64 bit only) MaxSE 32 bitSE 64 bitEE 32 bitEE 64 bit RAM4 GB32 GB64 GB2 TB CPU4488

SQL Server 2008 R2 MaxSEEE CPU88 RAM64 GB2 TB Size524 PB

Shock! n’ AWE! Windows Standard Edition 32 bit normally limited to 4GB RAM 2 GB for Windows 2 GB for application

Windows 32 bit (x86) Windows 32 bit enterprise or data center edition (not standard edition) Set PAE (Physical Address Extension) Edit Boot.ini Add to the last line: /PAE Reboot server for PAE to take affect

Shock! For example: The available RAM changed from 4 GB to 8 GB

AWE! SQL Server Set Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) Increases the available RAM for SQL Server Adjust the maximum memory in SQL SERVER

Enable AWE on 32 bit Enable in SQL Server Management Studio – Right click the server – Properties – Memory – Check mark: Use AWE to allocate memory – Enter: Minimum server memory (in MB) Maximum server memory (in MB) Restart SQL Server service

Enable AWE on 32 bit Or use sp_configure – sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1 – RECONFIGURE – GO – sp_configure 'awe enabled', 1 – RECONFIGURE – GO

Increase SQL Server Memory – exec sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; – reconfigure; – exec sp_configure; – exec sp_configure 'min server memory (MB)', 2000; – reconfigure; – exec sp_configure 'max server memory (MB)', 6000; – reconfigure; – exec sp_configure; Restart SQL Server service

Lock Pages in Memory For 64-bit, only SQL Server EE can use lock pages in memory If you receive the following message – Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) requires the 'lock pages in memory' privilege which is not currently present in the access token of the process.

Lock pages in Memory Run gpedit.msc. Group Policy – Computer Configuration – Windows Settings – Security Settings – Local Policies Select User Rights Assignment folder. – details pane

Lock pages in Memory Double-click Lock pages in memory Local Security Policy Setting – Add User or Group Add an account with privileges to run sqlservr.exe – Enter the Windows account Restart SQL Server service

Turn off Hyper-Threading Turn off Hyper-Threading on the server Hyper-Threading and SQL Server both use the L1 cache Conflict with each other

Turn off Hyper-Threading If the number of CPUs is twice the physical processors, disable Hyper-Threading During boot up, get into the system settings Processor Settings Logical Processor Change from Enabled to Disabled Reboot Verify in Task Manager

Database Backup Compression 2008 R2 SE has backup compression 2005 and 2008 can use third party – Red Gate SQL Backup – Quest LiteSpeed – Others

Performance Tuning Same as EE except avoid EE features Tuning more critical in SE I/O – Efficient disk configuration – Indexes Identify high cost queries – Query tuning – Stored procedure tuning

ALTER INDEX Use REORGANIZE instead of ONLINE ALTER INDEX MyIndexName ON MyTableName REORGANIZE;

Recap Maximize Windows Server version Enterprise 64 bit Tune 32 bit SQL Server Standard Edition 64 bit Tune 32 bit

Questions ??? LinkedIn PASS WIT Virtual Chapter Slides will be on PNWSQL site