Chapter 2

Demystifying Hardware

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

  • Understanding SQL Server workload types
  • Server model selection and evolution
  • Processor selection and SQL Server 2012 licensing considerations
  • Understanding processor model numbering
  • Choosing hardware to increase redundancy
  • Using hardware comparison tools

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THE IMPORTANCE OF HARDWARE

The underlying foundation of SQL Server 2012 performance and scalability is the actual hardware and storage subsystem on which your instance of SQL Server 2012 is running. This is true whether you are running in a virtualized environment or in a bare metal configuration. Regardless of what type of database workload you may have to deal with, and irrespective of how well designed and optimized your databases are, the characteristics and performance of your database hardware and storage subsystem are extremely important. Even the most well-designed and carefully tuned database application can be crippled by poorly chosen or inadequate hardware. This is not to say that hardware can solve all performance or scalability problems. A frequently executed, expensive query on an extremely large dataset can quickly overwhelm even the best hardware and storage subsystem. Despite this, having modern, properly sized hardware and a good storage subsystem gives you a much better chance of being able to handle any type of workload that you may see on SQL Server 2012, and makes ...

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