By host on 10/31/2009 3:26 AM
As promised and update on what has happened so far. A correction needs to be made. the P800 is a PCIe 1.0 card so the bandwidth is cut in half from 4GB/sec to 2GB/sec.
My CDW rep did get me in contact with an HP technical rep who actually knew something about the hardware in question and its capabilities. It was one of those good news, bad news situations. We will start with the bad news. The performance isn’t off. My worst fears were confirmed.
The Hard Disks The HP Guy (changing the names to protect the innocent) told me their rule of thumb for the performance of the 2.5” 73GB 15K drives is 10MB/Sec. I know what you are thinking, NO WAY! But, I’m not surprised at all. What I was told is the drives ship with the on board write cache disabled. They do this for data integrity reasons. Since the cache on the drive isn’t battery backed if there was any kind of failure the potential for data loss is there. There are three measurements of hard disk throughput, disk to cache, cache to system and disk... Read More » |
By host on 10/30/2009 1:55 PM
I love visiting Seattle, even in November. Getting to catch up with old friends and meet new people is always the highlight of my trip. Don’t get me wrong, the training is awesome and I always learn so much, but I am a social creature. I can always go to specific training events to hear Kalen or Itzik. Getting to meet them in a social setting is something else all together. I learn as much talking to as many of the 2000 people there as I do attending sessions. Never underestimate the wisdom of the crowd! I’m also a bingo square, if you aren’t playing SQLBingo shame on you! It is another great way to meet some smart people and expand your circle of friends.Even if you aren’t playing still come and find me, I’m always willing to meet new people. See you next week!
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By host on 10/9/2009 3:43 PM
I’ve toyed with the CLR in SQL Sever 2005 off and on since the first Yukon beta had it enabled. And I’ll be honest with you, I was not a fan.It wasn’t like “YOU got chocolate in my peanut butter!” kind of moment for me. I really thought it was going to be a disaster of biblical proportions. As SQL Server DBA’s we caught a break, adoption wasn’t exactly stellar. The problem was there are enough restrictions and little gotchas to keep developers from whole sale abandoning Transact SQL for something more familiar. Fast forward a few years and now I’m not so scared.My biggest worry back then was memory usage. I’m still not very comfortable with it, but on a 64-bit platform you can mitigate those issues by adding more memory. On a 32-bit platform you could cause all kinds of damage by squeezing the lower 4GB memory space to the point you could have connection and backup failures due to lack of memory. Oh and the fix is usually restarting SQL Server. An example of this comes directly from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131075.aspx
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By host on 9/17/2009 9:38 PM
Your servers are only as fast as the slowest part, hard drives.
To feed other parts of the system we have to add lots of drives to get the desired IO single server can consume.
The basics of how hard drives work has been fundamentally static since the 70’s only refinements in technique and the core technologies have improved.
You have a shaft or “spindle” attached to a motor. Disks or "platters” are attached to the spindle. The motor spins the spindle and the platters.
Read/write heads controlled by actuator motors move across the surface with very precise motion and access the information stored on the platters. Generally, there is one read/write head per platter surface that is useable.
Simple.
This configuration has worked so well for the last 45 years that every claim to date that X new technology would unseat it just hasn’t happened. That’s not to say it won’t happen, just that hard drives have been “good enough” for the bulk of our storage needs for... Read More » |
By host on 9/14/2009 9:49 PM
At least once a year I give a large talk on disk subsystems, IO and SQL Server. It’s a ground up from the nuts and bolts of how a hard drive works through SAN’s and Solid State Disks....
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By host on 9/12/2009 12:44 PM
Hello all!
We will be having our normal meeting at the Microsoft technology center sponsored by:
http://www.cactuss.org/Supporters/tabid/59/Default.aspx
Microsoft http://www.cactuss.org/MeetingInformation/tabid/63/Default.aspx Stonebridge Plaza, Building One 9606 N. Mopac Expressway, Suite 200 Austin, TX 78759
5:30PM to 6:00PM – Q&A and DBA 101 presentation 6:10PM to 7:00PM – Feature presentation 7:00PM 7:30PM – Q&A follow up and discuss next meeting.
The feature presentation will be given by Bjorn Hovd, Systems... Read More » |
By host on 9/5/2009 9:27 PM
SQL Pretty Printer for SQL Server Management Studio $39.95 single user $99.95 site license
having coding standards is a must for solid quality code. There are lots of articles on the subject like this one on simple talk.
Having standards is one thing, getting everyone on board is another, that’s where code formatters or beautifiers come in.
I’ve used code beautifiers for may other languages over the years and have written a couple to help enforce coding standards.
One of my pet peeves working with the default tools that ship with SQL Server is the lack of any kind of code formatter.
When you work with more than one developer you will get code that is ether hard to read or formatted to their specific taste.
That by its self isn’t a huge issue but when you are dealing with... Read More » |
By host on 8/18/2009 8:41 AM
If you are in Austin you should stop by!
If you want to know what is going on SQL Server wise in Austin http://www.cactuss.org is where you want to go.
Intro to SSAS with Brian Knight
Ever want to implement drag-and-drop reporting in your application and stop the rampant report queue. In this session you'll have a gentle introduction to SQL Server Analysis Services. You'll see how to use it to give your users their own ad-hoc reporting and have better than expected performance results.
? The Benefits of SSAS
? What are Dimensions and Hierarchies
? User interfaces for developers
? Cube Design and Measures
? Including UBO and MDX in SSAS
Q & A with Brian Knight Post meeting use of the DTS Profiler tool for analyzing the scope of DTS conversion... Read More » |
By host on 8/2/2009 9:15 PM
Its been fun and fulfilling getting neck deep into the Central Texas Capitol Area Users of SQL Server again after being on the road the previous year and the culmination of that is helping Brian organize a trip to the Lone Star State and speak to the groups in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio an Houston. I’ll post up the times, places and topics as soon as I can. I do know Houston is a joint meeting with San Antonio via LiveMeeting. Again, thanks to Brian and Pragmatic Works for making this all happen!
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By host on 8/2/2009 9:06 PM
I’ve done all the testing I can do for now. There were some unexpected developments that I will cover in a second article. Later this week I’ll post all my initial findings with the cards. The second post will be a follow on and some general observations about the SSD market as it stands right now. All I can say is I’ve never worked with a hardware vendor as passionate about the products, and more importantly the customer they sell them to, than Fusion-IO period.
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