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2-sqlserver-2012ic-m2-preinstall-os-slides

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etest2272
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SQL Server 2012:

Installation and Configuration

Module 2: Pre-installation Tasks


for the Operating System
Glenn Berry
[email protected]
Introduction

 There are several OS-level tasks that you must complete first
 These affect security, performance, scalability, and maintainability
 Getting domain accounts provisioned
 Needed for SQL Server Service accounts
 Getting Windows Server 2012 installed and patched
 Updating the main BIOS and other firmware
 Updating device drivers
 Checking power management settings
 Granting Windows rights to the SQL Server service account
 Getting a static IP address for your database server
 Getting your database server added to the domain
Getting Domain Accounts Provisioned

 You should have a Windows Domain account for each service


 Some organizations also have one domain account for each SQL instance
 This will depend on which components are installed
 SQL Server Service
 SQL Server Agent Service
 SQL Server Reporting Service
 SQL Server Analysis Service
 SQL Server Integration Service
 These should be regular Domain User accounts
 The setup program will grant the necessary rights for each account
 They do not need Local Administrator rights on the machine
 You will need the name and password for these accounts
 This information is required during SQL Server installation
Install and Patch Windows Server 2012

 Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition is a good choice


 It does not have the 32GB memory limit from previous versions
 It allows you to install the Failover Clustering feature if needed
 This is required for AlwaysOn Availability Groups
 Install the operating system on a hardware RAID 1 array
 This gives you some basic protection from a single disk failure
 Make sure to install Microsoft Update
 This is a superset of Windows Update
 Configure Microsoft Update properly
 Make sure it only notifies you of new updates
 You do not want it to automatically download and install updates
 Check for available updates and install them
 You may have to do this several times to get every update
BIOS and Firmware Updates

 Make sure you have the latest main system BIOS installed
 Brand new servers often have old BIOS versions
 Check the system vendor’s support site for the latest version
 Make sure you have the latest firmware for all of your components
 This will depend on what components are in your server
 RAID controllers
 Host Bus Adapters (HBAs)
 PCI-E storage cards
 Network Interface Cards (NICs)
 Vendor system management tools can detect out-of-date firmware
 Dell Open Management Systems Administrator
 HP System Insight Manager
 IBM Director
Checking For Firmware and Driver Updates
Install or Update Your Device Drivers

 Prefer the vendor supplied, system-specific drivers instead of the


generic Windows drivers
 What you need will depend on what components are in your server
 RAID controllers, Host Bus Adapters (HBAs)
 PCI-E storage cards
 Network Interface Cards (NICs)
 Video drivers
 Install the chipset drivers from the vendor first
 Install storage related and NIC drivers next
 Install video drivers last
Checking Your Power Management Settings

 BIOS power management in the BIOS setup application


 Should be set to OS control or disabled
 Windows Power Plan should be set to “High Performance”
 Default setting is “Balanced”
 This has a measurable negative effect on database server performance
 Check your processor speed values to confirm the settings
 Windows Server 2012 Task Manager
 CPU-Z utility from www.cpuid.com
Main BIOS Power Management Settings
Windows Power Options
Using Task Manager to Check CPU Speed
Using CPU-Z to Check CPU Core Speed
Grant Windows Rights to the SQL Server Service

 Two Windows rights should be granted on the machine to the SQL


Server Service account
 Perform volume maintenance tasks
 Lock pages in memory
 The Windows domain account for the service must exist first
 You should do this before you install SQL Server 2012
 Use the Local Group Policy Editor to do this
 Type gpedit.msc at a command prompt
Perform Volume Maintenance Tasks

 This right enables Windows instant file initialization (IFI)


 This lets SQL Server avoid having to “zero-out” data files after they are
created or grown
 This only affects SQL Server data files, not SQL Server log files
 Huge reduction in data file creation and growth times
 Especially important for larger database data files
 This dramatically reduces database restore time
 Makes it easier to initialize high-availability secondary copies of databases
(such as database mirror, replication subscription database, or AlwaysOn
Availability Group replica)
 Dramatically reduces downtime during disaster-recovery restore
 Very slight security risk with this setting
 A DBA could possibly access previously deleted files that they don’t have
normal rights to access
 Not an issue if storage is dedicated to SQL Server
Lock Pages in Memory (LPIM)

 Prevents OS from trimming the SQL Server working set


 Operating system forces SQL Server to release some memory
 This can happen when the OS is under severe memory pressure
 It is often caused by memory leaks in device drivers
 Trimming the working set has an extreme negative effect on SQL Server
 Used to only be available in SQL Server Enterprise Edition
 SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition now supports LPIM
 No trace flag is required with SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition
 Very important to set sp_configure ‘max server memory’
 You want to limit how much memory SQL Server can use
 You want to make sure the OS is never under memory pressure
 Jonathan Keheyias post at http://bit.ly/Nn1RtQ
Local Group Policy Editor
Final OS Configuration Tasks

 Change network settings to use a static IP address


 Make sure your server has been added to a Windows domain
 Enable Remote Desktop in Windows
 Allows you to logon remotely when needed
 Configure anti-virus to skip .MDF, .NDF, and .LDF files
 Manually optimize your C: drive
 Make sure there are no pending reboots in Windows
 If you will be using the FILESTREAM feature:
 Disable 8.3 filename generation
 fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1
 Disable updating of last file access time
 fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1
 Read Paul Randal’s whitepaper for more details about FILESTREAM:
 http://bit.ly/10QqTqt
Optimize Drives Dialog
Summary

 Proper OS installation and configuration is very important


 Provides better performance, scalability and security
 Makes the instance easier to maintain in the future
 Hardware configuration is very important
 Power management and hyperthreading settings
 BIOS and firmware updates
 Make sure all of these tasks are completed before you install SQL
Server 2012
What is Next?

 Module 3 will cover pre-installation tasks for SQL Server 2012


 Using a standardized naming scheme for disks and directories
 Considering your workload for storage provisioning
 RAID level and SQL Server workloads
 Provisioning your logical drives
 Testing your logical drive performance with CrystalDiskMark
 Testing your logical drive performance with SQLIO

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