Let’s Get It Started Lori Edwards, SQL Sentry

Introduction  Sales Engineer for SQL Sentry since 2/2013  Previously – DBA since 2003  PASS volunteer  PASSion Award winner 2011    Blog:  LinkedIn: 2 | Let's Get It Started

Agenda  Preparing to install  Configuration  Post configuration  Unattended installations  Questions 3 | Let's Get It Started

Goals for this session  Understand when and why you might want to change configuration values  Create a method for repeatable installs  Create a process for server level documentation Let's Get It Started4 |

Preparing to Install Information to gather prior to install  Read application documentation or talk to your devs!!!  Update OS (service packs)  Collect service packs/cumulative updates 5 |Let's Get It Started

Installation  Service accounts  Preferably different accounts for each service  What kind of accounts should be used  Rights  Access  Windows or Mixed Mode Authentication  If Mixed Mode, set SA password  SQL Server administrators 6 |Let's Get It Started

Installation  Data and log file storage/Backup directories  Defaults to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\ \MSSQL\  Ports  Default: 1433  Dynamic ports? Let's Get It Started7 |

Configuration  Now that your SQL Server is installed, let’s check some configurations  Run EXEC sp_configure to get current values  Ways to change configurations  SSMS instance properties  sp_configure Example:  Policy Based Management (PBM) Let's Get It Started8 |

Surface Area Configuration  Used to turn enable/disable features of SQL Server  Changed via PBM facets or sp_configure Let's Get It Started9 |

Surface Area Configuration (cont) Let's Get It Started10 |

Surface Area Configuration  Many of these features affect security  Includes:  AdHocRemoteQueries (aka Ad Hoc Distributed Queries)  XPCmdShell  ClrIntegration  OleAutomation  RemoteDac Let's Get It Started11 |

Enable the remote DAC  Dedicated Admin Connection  Allows remote connections to the server even if the server is non responsive  You may not ever need it, but if you do… 12 |Let's Get It Started

Memory settings  Minimum server memory  Default is 0  If minimum server memory isn’t available, SQL Server service won’t start  Maximum server memory  Default is MB(~2PB!) 13 |Let's Get It Started

Parallelism  Max Degree of Parallelism  Default is unlimited (0)  OPTION(MAXDOP) query hint  Cost Threshold for Parallelism  Default is 5  Tuning that number: e/2010/01/19/tuning-cost-threshold-of-parallelism- from-the-plan-cache.aspx e/2010/01/19/tuning-cost-threshold-of-parallelism- from-the-plan-cache.aspx 14 |Let's Get It Started

Collationsettings  Take a moment with this: Default is: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS  Differences in collation between user database and tempdb can cause issues 15 |Let's Get It Started

Optimize for Adhoc Workloads  Disabled by default  Plan use can be viewed in sys.cm_exec_cached_plans  Weigh difference between cost of compiles vs plan cache bloat 16 |Let's Get It Started

Instant File Initialization  Not technically a SQL Server configuration  Disabled by default  Available SQL Server on Windows Server  Faster database creation and file growth  Transaction logs  Potential security risk.. 17 |Let's Get It Started

Backup Compression  Introduced 2008  Available in Standard Edition 2008R2  Not enabled by default  Free storage savings – why not? 18 |Let's Get It Started

VLFs  Not really a configuration setting  Set appropriate initial size and autogrowth settings log-vlfs-too-many-or-too-few/  Algorithm for VLFs has changed in creation-algorithm-sql-server-2014/  How to check? 19 |Let's Get It Started

TempDB  If possible, put on its own storage  Size appropriately based on growth  Number of files  >= 8 logical cores  Set number of files to number of logical cores  >8 logical cores  Set number of files to 8, increase by  Ensure that the files are equally sized 20 |Let's Get It Started

Indexes  Default index fill factor  Default = 0 (or none)  What/when/why  Resource impact  Pad Index  Not a server level setting  Only applies if fill factor is set Let's Get It Started21 |

Trace Flags  Trace flags are typically used for troubleshooting or correcting specific behavior, but…  TF 3226 – successful backup entries  TF 1117 – grow all tempdb files  TF 1118 – grow tempdb in full extents Let's Get It Started22 |

After completing set up and config  Set up database maintenance  Backups  Recovery model  SLAs  Ensure autogrowth settings are reasonable  Disable AUTO_SHRINK  Disable AUTO_CLOSE 23 |Let's Get It Started

After completing set up and config  Disable the SA account, if possible  SQL Agent Alerts  Severity level 19+  Agent alerts, 823, 824, 825  Anti virus exclusions Let's Get It Started24 |

After completing set up and config  Statistics  AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS  For queried columns without statistics  AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS  Trace flag 2371 for very large tables  AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC 25 |Let's Get It Started

Documentation  Almost no one likes documentation – that’s a fact.  Make it a habit  Included script and form from this session Let's Get It Started26 |

Unattended installations  Saves time and keystrokes  Standardize!  Easy to hand off to others  Can install any features of SQL Server (SSRS, SSIS, SSAS) 27 |Let's Get It Started

Unattended installation command line  All settings are configured using parameters  Well over 100 possible parameters (look here: us/library/ms aspx ) us/library/ms aspx  Example:  setup.exe /q /ACTION=CompleteImage /INSTANCENAME=MYNEWINST /INSTANCEID= /SQLSVCACCOUNT=" " /SQLSVCPASSWORD=" " /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=" " /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\Network Service" /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS 28 |Let's Get It Started

Unattended installation w/ config file  I prefer using a config file  Can be found at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\ \Setup Bootstrap\Log\ \ConfigurationFile.ini 29 |Let's Get It Started

Unattended installation w/ config file 30 |Let's Get It Started

Unattended installation w/ config file  Changes to the config file  Remove UIMODE  Change Quiet to “True”  Add IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS = “True” 31 |Let's Get It Started

Unattended installation w/ config file  Ensure any service accounts are set up prior  To run:  Path A = Path to SQL Server installation media  Path B = Path to configuration file  From cmd prompt:  /ConfigurationFile = “ ”  Example: C:\SQL\setup.exe /ConfigurationFile = “D:\config\ConfigurationFile.ini” 32 |Let's Get It Started

Summary At the end of this session, you should have learned:  What information to have on hand for an installation  Various configuration settings and when they would be appropriate to change  Steps to take post configuration  Perform unattended installs 33 | Let's Get It Started

Questions? me at Or tweet Thank you! 34 | Let's Get It Started

And your bonus for attending Let's Get It Started35 | Compilation of posts from SQLPerformance.com or me

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