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21 October 2009 22:57

When does 2+2 != 4 ?

Disclaimer: Results and observations are from a specific series of tests using sql 2008 enterprise on windows 2008 enterprise. I've been working on a series of benchmarking tests for an application with the aim of showing scaling of the storage for...
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04 May 2009 19:53

Storage – The Final Frontier

This is the presentation for the UK SSUG that I gave the other night. The link below is a pdf of all the slides and the script / notes that I wrote to go with each slide.  I’ve not edited this for style or anything – this is as I worked out what...
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04 March 2009 22:35

NTFS Fragmentation may be more harmful than you think

I’ve posted previously about the adverse affect of ntfs fragmentation and I’ve also mentioned that it is sometimes suggested that fragmentation is not a concern on a SAN. I’ve yet to finish testing this on a SAN, after all you don’t often get a free play...
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26 February 2009 22:16

Thin Provisioning and ntfs

I'm currently working on a SQL Server storage project and as part of that I'm touching a number of areas that may be of interest to the DBA. The IT industry is full of buzz words, new fads, fashionable terms and so on; and Thin Provisioning was...
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14 January 2009 20:09

Tracking contention on the SAN - testing Times

One hotly disputed topic on SAN performance is the matter of contention. This may materialise in the fabric due to over subscription or excessive fan in. A fibre channel fabric is a network which connects servers and storage through switches, just like...
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05 January 2009 19:51

Testing Times - mdf fragmentation

NTFS fragmentation degrades SAN performance? Well it does for insane fragmentation....
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31 December 2008 15:40

CompareStorage@GrumpyOldDBA

As a slightly seasonal touch of lightness I though I’d just do a comparison of DAS and SAN storage Item DAS SAN Basic Storage Cost Good Hideously expensive Ease of Use Simple How many storage engineers and system administrators does it take to change...
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23 November 2008 22:31

Testing Times 3

( I was on holiday for three weeks so sorry for the delays ) In my previous posts I briefly mentioned the task in establishing a method to benchmark a SQL Server new build or migration. This hasn't been an easy task by any means and I am under pressure...
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07 October 2008 15:41

Testing Times 1

It's an interesting time with being asked to performance test/benchmark a new server setup for a migration of sql server and data centre. Both current and new servers are SAN attached and it has been what is effectively the testing of the storage...
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03 April 2008 12:53

Disk Partition Alignment ( SANs and Diskpart )

As a further post to my series on what else can affect SQL Server Performance here’s the thorny issue of disk partition alignment. Disclaimer : I don’t get to configure SANs, places I work have dedicated teams and it’s unlikely a DBA would be considered...
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23 October 2007 18:18

How to monitor SAN performance

I was at the Storage Expo last week having a look around for SAN monitoring tools and to speak to a couple of vendors about their tools, yes I know you'll probably think " how sad " < grin > Storage performance can impact SQL Server database performance...
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19 September 2007 11:34

Are your SAN drives performing well?

Those that know me know that I consider SAN's to be one of the major bottlenecks to high performance SQL Server databases; certainly my experience over the years has often shown this to be the case - however that's a whole other area for discusion, what...
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