Building a new server

  • OK, I am in charge of specifying our new SQL server, our server now is 5 years old and we are seeing some performance issues. We are a small company and I am as close to a DBA as we have so bear with me.

    A few questions keep coming up…

    1.Physical or virtual? All of our servers now are virtual expect our SQL server.

    2.Should the report server be on a separate server than the database?

    3.We are running Backup Exec on our database server, is this ok?

    Our current server is as follows, do you see any issues with this setup?

    Dell Power Edge

    •Windows server 2008 r2 sp1

    •SQL 2008 r2 Standard

    •24 gb RAM

    •2x 4 core, Intel Xeon X5365 300GHz

    •A single Raid 5 (4 SCSI 15000 rpm drives)

    Thank you.

    Also we are wanting to upgrade to SQL 2012

  • Some information about the size of your database would probably help as well. Also, what kind of performance issues are you experiencing? It could just as simple as a job hogging all the resources on your server. It is also a good idea to have the database on its own server just in case another application starts using all the resources on the server, but I can understand if you do not have enough funds to do so.

  • We have several databases but the main database is just under 10 gig. The issue i am seeing is when users are using rendering reports or other peak time activities the processor stays high, sometimes 100% usage. We use a custom written software that I wrote and i have removed a bunch of the sql processing to c# on the client machine but still see high processor usage and its always sql server using it, this is mainly using task manager. Also there are times that in SSMS a simple select statement can take seconds to run.

  • Are you the adminstrator of the SQL server instance, Mike?

    “Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw

    For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
    Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
    Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden

  • yes i am.

  • Mike Martin (6/4/2013)


    2.Should the report server be on a separate server than the database?

    In case of separate servers you will need additional MS SQL Server license.

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