Gopal Ashok Program Manager Microsoft Corp

Agenda SQL Server Consolidation Virtualization & Microsoft Hyper-V Architecture Consolidation Performance High Availability & Manageability offerings Achieving scalability with Virtualization Best Practices and Recommendations SQL Relational Workload A Case Study Key Takeaways

Forces Driving Consolidation Reduce Cap-Ex Upgrade & standardize to fewer hardware Reduce space, power and thermal needs Reduce Op-Ex Improve Hardware Utilization Efficiency Improve Management Efficiency Lowered cost and complexity for High Availability Infrastructure Agility Load Balancing & Dynamic Provisioning Standardization of services Number of database apps Number of DBA’s Hardware computing capacity Underutilized hardware Overburdened Administrators

SQL Server Consolidation Higher Isolation, Higher Costs Higher Density, Lower Costs Databases Instances Virtual Machines Sales_1 Marketing_1 Online_Sales ERP_10 DB_1 DB_2 DB_3 Consolidate_1  Currently a variety of consolidation approaches exist and are utilized.  Typically, as isolation goes up, density goes down and operation cost goes up. IT Managed Environment Schemas

SQL Server Consolidation Options Higher Isolation, Higher Costs Higher Density, Lower Costs  Database level consolidation Multiple databases are collapsed into a single instance  Common security, manageability and compatibility models required  Might require changes to existing applications and scripts  Lower manageability costs  Better resource isolation and allocation capabilities through Resource Governor Databases DB_1 DB_2 DB_3 Consolidate_1 Instances Virtual Machines Sales_1 Marketing_1 Online_Sales ERP_10

 Instance level consolidation Multiple Instances running on one system  Full schema and security isolation  Partial system resource & management isolation  Potential conflicts in namespace, resources and system roles  IO, System Memory and CPU are typical density limiters SQL Server Consolidation Options Higher Isolation, Higher Costs Higher Density, Lower Costs Databases DB_1 DB_2 DB_3 Consolidate_1 Instances Virtual Machines Sales_1 Marketing_1 Online_Sales ERP_10

SQL Server Consolidation Options Higher Isolation, Higher Costs Higher Density, Lower Costs  Virtual Machine consolidation  Strong isolation between applications  Ease of capturing and moving execution loads  Out of the box High Availability configuration  Flexible storage management  Fewer systems, but just as many OS images to manage  Increased resource usage Databases DB_1 DB_2 DB_3 Consolidate_1 Instances Virtual Machines Sales_1 Marketing_1 Online_Sales ERP_10

Choosing the Right Consolidation Approach  Evaluate key parameters for your environment  Isolation between apps  Security isolation  Predictable Performance : Resource isolation  HA : Failure isolation  Density of apps  Performance : Resource utilization efficiency  Manageability Impact  HA : mitigating single point of failure  Time to Market  How long does it take to consolidate?  Can my solution Scale?

Agenda SQL Server Consolidation Virtualization & Microsoft Hyper-V Architecture Consolidation Performance High Availability & Manageability offerings Achieving scalability with Virtualization Best Practices and Recommendations SQL Relational Workload A Case Study Key Takeaways

Hyper-V Architectural Overview Root Partition I/O Stacks Drivers I/O Stacks TCP/IP, File systems I/O Stacks TCP/IP, File systems Server VMBus Virtual Service Clients DevicesProcessorsMemory VMBus Virtual Service Providers Child Partition Drivers Child Partition Enlightened OS User Mode Kernel Mode Hypervisor Mode Fast Path Device Emulation I/O Stacks TCP/IP, File systems I/O Stacks TCP/IP, File systems Drivers Device Emulation Server Child Partition Non-Enlightened OS Applications Hypervisor Hardware Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2

Agenda SQL Server Consolidation Virtualization & Microsoft Hyper-V Architecture Consolidation Performance High Availability & Manageability offerings Achieving scalability with Virtualization Best Practices and Recommendations SQL Relational Workload Analysis Services Workload A Case Study Key Takeaways

Monitoring Performance: CPU Terminology Logical Processor: One logical computing engine in the OS, application and driver view Virtual Processor: Virtual logical processor (upto 1:8 over commit of LP) % Processor Time % Processor Time counters in either guest or root may not be accurate Hyper-V Processor Counters The best way to get true measure of CPU utilization Hyper-V Logical Processor: Total CPU time across entire server Hyper-V Virtual Processor: CPU time for each guest virtual processor

Monitoring Performance: Storage ConfigurationConsiderations Guest VM w/ Passthrough Disks Use Physical disk counters within root partition to monitor I/O of passthrough disks Guest VM w/ VHD Use Logical or physical disk counters within guest VM to monitor IO rates of a VHD Disk counters at the root partition provide aggregate IO of all VHDs hosted on the underlying partition/volume Either configuration Very little difference in the values reported by the counters from the root partition with those within guest VM Slightly higher latency values (Avg. Disk/sec Read and Write) observed within the guest VM Terminology Passthrough Disk: Disk Offline at Root Partition VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) Fixed Size VHD : Space allocated statically Dynamic VHD : Expand on demand

SQL Server Consolidation Performance: Native vs. Virtual Configuration Workload : Stock trading application Hardware: PowerEdge R900 Intel Xeon 2.4GHz, 4 cores x 4 CPU = Total 16 cores Hitachi Data Systems AMS1000 Virtual Machines: 4 Virtual Processors, 14GB RAM, 12 GB for SQL Passthrough and Fixed-Size VHDs (2 Data, 1 Log) Results  Relative Throughput = Batches/sec/%Processor  Same throughput attainable  There is more CPU overhead with hyper-v enabled or when running within a VM  Passthrough Performance ~5% Better than fixed size VHDs  Native Instances and Virtual Instances achieves the same level of scalability

SQL Server Consolidation Performance: Native vs. Virtual (overcommit) Configuration  Workload : Stock trading application  Hardware: PowerEdge R900 Intel Xeon 2.4GHz, 4 cores x 2 CPU = Total 8 cores Hitachi Data Systems AMS1000  Virtual Machines: 4 Virtual Processors, 14GB RAM, 12 GB for SQL Passthrough and Fixed-Size VHDs (2 Data, 1 Log) Results  Relative Throughput = Batches/sec/%Processor  Same throughput attainable with CPU overcommit  Additional overhead with over subscribe logical processors  Taking into consideration of the additional overhead for capacity planning  Native Instances and Virtual Instances achieves the same level of scalability

Passthrough vs. Fixed Size VHD VHD’s on Shared Storage vs. Dedicated Spindles using Passthrough Disks Measuring average reads per second vs. latency VHDs on shared disks has slight latency overhead and less throughput Graph bars = Reads/sec Lines = Avg. Disk/sec Read (.001 = 1 ms)

Transaction Response Time Results: Transaction response time comparable sub seconds application response time When system under stress, VM appears to have better scalability Test your own workload, may scale differently Configuration: OS: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ Hardware: HP DL785 (32 core) Hitachi Data Systems AMS2500 Storage Virtual Machines: 4 virtual processors and 7 GB RAM per virtual machine; Fixed size VHD

Agenda SQL Server Consolidation Virtualization & Microsoft Hyper-V Architecture Consolidation Performance High Availability & Manageability offerings Achieving scalability with Virtualization Best Practices and Recommendations SQL Relational Workload A Case Study Key Takeaways

High Availability with Guest Clustering Using iSCSI Scenario Description: Improve high availability with a combination of guest clustering and host clustering Only iSCSI is supported for guest clustering iSCSI Initiator runs within the VM allowing storage to be fully visible to the VM Storage is fully visible to the guest cluster and enables high-availability of services and applications in the virtual layer Support the use of multiple redundant paths using Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) or MCS (multiple connections per session) from within the VM Virtualization Benefits: Provide fault tolerance both at application and host level All applications can run in the context of the VM Management efficiency based on SQL Server® and System Center management tools Backup applications have full visibility to data within the application context Storage providers such as MPIO, VDS, VSS run within the VM Shared Storage iSCSI Guest Cluster 1 2 VM Redundant Paths to storage

High Availability with Live Migration Scenario Description: Manage high availability with multipathing and live migration for planned downtime situations, such as hardware and software maintenance Migrating individual virtual machines (VMs) to other hosts within a cluster by using Cluster Shared Volume (in Windows Server® 2008 R2) Use Microsoft ® System Center Virtual Machine Manager for migrations. System Center VMM can perform host compatibility checks before migrations and manage multiple Live Migrations with queues. Nodes in cluster can be active-active Ensure there is enough CPU capacity for the failover nodes in cluster Virtualization Benefits: No loss of service during migration with live migration. Improve availability with less complexity Load balancing VMs across physical machines as needed Better server utilization due to consolidation Easier management through System Center VMM Shared Storage iSCSI, SAS, Fibre Live Migration 1 2 Host cluster 1 2 VM Consolidation increases the importance of HA, since there is a high cost to single system failure

Creating and managing Virtual Machines Maximize Resources – Centralized virtual machine deployment and management for Hyper-V, Virtual Server, and VMware ESX servers – Intelligent placement of Virtual Machines – Fast and reliable P2V and V2V conversion – Comprehensive application and service-level monitoring with Operations Manager – Integrated Performance and Resource Optmization (PRO) of VMs Increase Agility – Rapid provisioning of new virtual machines with templates – Centralized library of infrastructure components – Leverage and extend existing storage infrastructure and clusters – Allow for delegated management and access of VMs Leverage Skills – Familiar interface, common foundation, powershell scripting

Agenda SQL Server Consolidation Virtualization & Microsoft Hyper-V Architecture Consolidation Performance High Availability & Manageability offerings Achieving scalability with Virtualization Best Practices and Recommendations SQL Relational Workload A Case Study Key Takeaways

NUMA NODE 0 NUMA NODE 1 Local Memory Access Foreign Memory Access 4x local SMP NUMA Consolidation Hardware – NUMA & 64bit NUMA Node isolation presents inherent & significant advantages to software that is designed to take advantage of locality Microsoft Hyper-V localizes VM resource utilization to a NUMA boundary 64bit allows significantly more addressable space than 32bit Front side bus contention increases w/ higher #CPUs

Consolidation Hardware – SLAT With Virtualization an additional level of mapping is required in address translation Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) - 2 nd generation virtualization technology in Intel VT-x with EPT and AMD –V with NPT chips accelerate VM performance to be almost on par with bare metal for common workloads Continuing innovations in hardware assists – Device and IO virtualization Guest Physical Memory Pages Guest Physical view The Virtual Machine view Guest Physical Memory Pages Guest Physical view Virtual Machine 1 Hyper Visor Virtual Machine 1 Virtual Machine 3 Operating System Guest Physical Memory Pages Guest Physical view Physical Memory Pages Host Physical / real view

SQL Server Performance: SLAT Impact Results: Increased throughput with consolidation Near linear scale in throughput with no CPU over- commit Improved performance with Windows Server 2008 R2 and SLAT processor architecture Configuration: OS: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ Hardware: HP DL585 (16 core) with SLAT HP EVA 8000 storage Virtual Machines: 4 virtual processors and 7 GB RAM per virtual machine; Fixed size VHD ) % CPU Throughput (Batch requests/sec) Relative Throughput for Windows Server 2008 Heavy Load Moderate Load Low Load CPU over-commit Almost Linear Scale No CPU over-commit Almost Linear Scale No CPU over-commit

Consolidation Hardware – Snoop Filtering NUMA NODE 0 NUMA NODE 1 Memory C0 C1 C2 C3 MCH0 C4 C5 C6 C7 MCH1 Fetch addr (first time) 1.Issue Fetch to Memory Controller Hub (MCH) 2.Snoop local caches 3.Caches respond 4.Snoop foreign caches 5.Caches respond 6.Get data from memory controller

Consolidation Hardware – Snoop Filtering NUMA NODE 0 NUMA NODE 1 Memory C0 C1 C2 C3 MCH0 C4 C5 C6 C7 MCH1 Fetch addr (first time) 1.Issue Fetch to Memory Controller Hub (MCH) 2.Check local snoop filter 3.Check foreign snoop filter 4.Get data from memory controller Snoop Filter reduces internode traffic

SQL Server Performance : Snoop Filter Impact Results: Drop-in compatibility of Istanbul processors with existing infrastructure AMD HyperTransport Assist (Intel snoop filter) feature huge benefit to SQL workload keep cache coherency traffic between the two sockets from appearing on the external bus ~50% performance improvement Configuration: OS: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ Hardware: HP DL785 with and without snoop filter support (Shanghai vs. Istanbul) Hitachi Data Systems AMS2500 Storage Virtual Machines: 4 virtual processors and 7 GB RAM per virtual machine; Fixed size VHD

Agenda SQL Server Consolidation Virtualization & Microsoft Hyper-V Architecture Consolidation Performance High Availability & Manageability offerings Achieving scalability with Virtualization Best Practices and Recommendations SQL Relational Workload A Case Study Key Takeaways

Best Practices and Recommendations Running SQL Server workloads within Hyper-V guest VM’s is a good option for production environment When compared against native the same throughput can be achieved within a guest VM at a cost of slightly increased CPU utilization Hyper-V benefits from newer generation of processor architecture (SLAT, Snoop filter) Assuming limitations of Guest VM meet requirements of the workload. Proper hardware sizing is critical to SQL Server performance Test/Monitor your workloads CPU Resources Over Commit on case by case basis for Higher Density May introduce noticeable performance overhead when all workloads are busy

Best Practices and Recommendations Integrated Component : “Enlightenments” Better IO performance Reduce memory access overhead Passthrough and Fixed Size VHD for Better I/O performance IO Performance Impact is minimal SQL IO performance and sizing recommendations apply Dynamic VHD not recommended for SQL Server deployments Proper sizing of memory capacity. Memory is allocated for VMs in a static fashion and can only be modified when a guest is offline CPU Affinity Not Supported Network intensive workload might experience more overhead

Case Study – MSIT SQL Consolidation Microsoft IT Infrastructure Overview Pre-Consolidation State ● ~2,700 Applications in MSIT Portfolio ● ~4797 SQL Server Instances ● ~100,000 databases ● ~20% end-of-life hosts/year ● ~10% CPU utilization across hosts Consolidation Approach ● Microsoft IT evaluated database, instance and host based consolidation Resource Management Approach ● Resource Management effectiveness considered critical issue ● Instance based would utilize WSRM ● Hyper-V allows explicit allocation of CPU and IO channels

Case Study – MSIT SQL Consolidation Microsoft IT Consolidation Conclusions Consolidation Strategy ● Host Consolidation utilizing Hyper-V ● Target of 6 to 1 consolidation ratio ● Fixed Virtual Drives (VHDs) over Dynamic and Pass Through Consolidation Approach ● Decision starting point was instance based consolidation ● Evaluation led to decision change: Hyper-V based host consolidation WSRM vs. Hyper-V ● Microsoft IT evaluated WSRM vs. Hyper-V & ultimately chose Hyper-V

Case Study - Microsoft IT Consolidation

Key Takeaways No One-size Solution for Consolidation Hyper-V is a solid platform for SQL Server, both for scalability and performance Understand performance and functional needs of workloads being consolidated If possible, avoid consolidation of heterogeneous workloads on the same Windows Server I/O design is very significant Especially tempdb and log files Monitor I/O latency and ensure healthy I/O performance Avoid spindle sharing with other servers/applications when possible Follow Best Practices for storage Ensure No/minimal Contention for Memory Resources Determine and set upper memory limits for SQL Server and SSAS (both single and multiple instances) Take into account memory needed for OS, other applications Understand and test the impact of SSIS packages being run locally Ensure enough memory for CLR procedures

Key Takeaways Resource Management Hyper-V CPU management tools to manage CPU resources at VM Level WSRM to manage multiple instances CPU resource Resource Governor to manage within an instance SQL Server Analysis Services Determine and set upper memory limits for SQL Server and SSAS (both single and multiple instances) SSAS consolidation enables better utilization of hardware (new or existing) SSAS consolidation requires planning to resolve resource contention and availability / single point of failure issues Taking advantage of New Processor Architecture SLAT Snoop Filter Share your Lessons Learned!

SQL Solution Accelerators Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide Outline SQL Server 2008 infrastructure design decisions and ensure that business and technical requirements are met Offer easy-to-follow steps to design architecture including decision flows Download at Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Identify SQL instances automatically Assess Hyper-V virtualization candidates for server consolidation Download at

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References Running SQL 2008 in Hyper-V Environment environment-best-practices-and-performance-recommendations.aspx Green IT in Practices: SQL Server Consolidation in Microsoft IT Support Policies of SQL Server in virtualized environments. virtualization-environment.aspx Windows Virtualization Validation Program Windows Server Hyper-V site Hyper-V Technet center SQL Server 2008 Business Value Calculator:

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