Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
How Fast and Robust
Is Your Storage?
The storage subsystem is the foundation for all the data that lives in SQL Server. The performance,
robustness, and reliability of the storage subsystem affect everything you build on it in SQL. For
this reason it is essential that you have a solid understanding of what your storage subsystem can
deliver and have confidence in its robustness and reliability.
The best way to build that solid understanding of the storage subsystem's performance potential is
to measure it using a performance test. There are several ways to do this, and this chapter discusses
several options before diving into using one in more detail. The tool of choice for this chapter is
SQLIO.
The best way to build confidence in the robustness and reliability of the storage subsystem is to run
a stress test on it. There are multiple ways you can do this, and this chapter discusses several ways
you might do this before digging into the details of using the latest tool from Microsoft: SQLIOSIM.
Obviously, everyone's system is different. You will have your system configured according to your
various needs. Depending on your system, you will have a certain amount of disk space. You will
have assorted programs running on different schedules. As you follow along with this chapter, it is
likely that you will have different measurements and readings than some of the ones I will provide.
That is fine. Don't get too caught up comparing those specific numbers. The important thing to take
away from this chapter is an understanding of the core principles involved here.
Performance Testing, Stress Testing,
and Real-Life Performance
A lot of people I speak to about storage performance are confused about the difference between
these three completely different aspects of testing storage and how the results of one type of test
might relate to a different aspect of performance.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search