The application itself was very Disk Intensive - storing excessively transactions in large tables and in addition large blobs in the database.

With all Load Agents running we came up to 50.000 SQL Batch Requests/Sec (monitored with Windows Perfmon) and during all the tests we never encountered a Disk latency greater than 0ms (Zero Milli-Seconds) whereas Processor Usage went up to 90-95% Processor Time.

These Results are very uncommon since multicore Systems have arrived and change the way we have to do performance tuning of Database Applications. Where usually we start by tuning queries that take about 200ms now we can start by tuning 50ms queries. And it becomes much more important to even tune queries that take about 5ms but occur very often.

The results change the way I think about performance tuning again. Where SSD Storage still has latency and is bottlenecked by Controllers performance (usually 780MB/s per channel) FusionIO seems to have no real limit that can be reached with this application. In addition the way the application makes use of SQL Server Features becomes much more important to tune even fast queries (<5ms) becomes very important.

The next step to optimize applications is to go with SQL 2014 and use In Memory Optimized Tables.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn133186(v=sql.120).aspx

Nach dem Erscheinen von Visual
Studio 2012 und .NET Framework 4.5 im letzten Herbst, kündigen sich nun bereits
die beiden Nachfolgerversionen Visual Studio 2013 und .NET 4.5.1 an, die jede
Menge spannende Neuerungen mit sich bringen. Zusammen mit den Möglichkeiten von
Windows Phone, Windows Azure oder Windows 8 und Windows 8.1 bieten sich für
Entwickler viele interessante Optionen.

Aus diesem Grund veranstaltet
Microsoft Deutschand am 14. Oktober die Visual
Studio Evolution 2013, eine
Fachkonferenz für Entwickler im Microsoft-Umfeld. In insgesamt vier Tracks,
drei Keynotes und 20 Sessions haben Sie die Chance, sich Informationen von Microsoft-Experten
und führenden Köpfen aus der Community
aus erster Hand zu holen.

In den vier Tracks Visual
Studio, .NET Framework, Windows 8.1 & Windows Phone und Web & Cloud
beschäftigen sich renommierte Sprecher wie Christian Binder, Neno Loje, Daniel
Meixner, Thomas Schissler oder Holger Sirtl unter anderem mit den folgenden
Themen: Was ist neu in Visual Studio 2013 und .NET Framework 4.5.1? Welche
Möglichkeiten bieten diese Neuerungen für klassische und neue Anwendungstypen?
Welchen Einfluss haben Apps und Cloud auf die Moderne Softwareentwicklung und
wie lassen sich die aktuellen Trends mit etablierten Technologien aus dem
.NET-Umfeld sinnvoll verbinden? Was für Möglichkeiten bieten Windows 8.1 und
Kinect?

Für die drei Keynotes reisen direkt
aus der Microsoft-Zentrale in Redmond Steve Fox, Director Modern Application
Center of Excellence, Ben Lower, Senior Program Manager Kinect for Windows, und
Habib Heydarian, GPM CLR Engineering Team, an.

Die Teilnahmegebühr für die
Fachkonferenz in Neuss bei Düsseldorf beträgt 79 Euro (zzgl. 19
Prozent MwSt). Eine schnelle
Anmeldung wird empfohlen,
da die Teilnehmerzahl begrenzt ist.

Ob Sie nun mit Visual Studio oder
dem .NET Framework arbeiten, Webentwickler sind, für mobile Endgeräte
entwickeln wollen oder Cloud Services in Ihre Anwendung einbinden, die Visual
Studio Evolution 2013 ist die richtige Anlaufstelle, um sich über aktuelle
Technologien, Programme und Services zu informieren. Nutzen Sie die Gelegenheit
und sichern Sie sich am besten noch heute Ihren Platz.

Technical Reviewers: Mark Russinovich, Brad Calder, Andrew Edwards, Suraj Puri, Flavio Muratore, Hanuma Kodavalla, Madhan Arumugam Ramakrishnan, Naveen Prakash, Robert Dorr, Roger Doherty, Steve Howard, Yorihito Tada, Kun Cheng, Chris Clayton, Igor Pagliai, Shep Sheppard, Tim Wieman, Greg Low, Juergen Thomas, Guy Bowerman, Evgeny Krivosheev

Editor: Beth Inghram

Summary: Developers and IT professionals should be fully knowledgeable about how to optimize the performance of SQL Server workloads running in Windows Azure Infrastructure Services and in more traditional on-premises environments. This technical article discusses the key factors to consider when evaluating performance and planning a migration to SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. It also provides certain best practices and techniques for performance tuning and troubleshooting when using SQL Server in Windows Azure Infrastructure Services.

Read on: Performance Guidance for SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines.

SSIS Operational and Tuning Guide

SQL Server Technical Article

Writer: Alexei Khalyako, Carla Sabotta, Silvano Coriani, Sreedhar Pelluru, Steve Howard

Technical Reviewer: Cindy Gross, David Pless, Mark Simms, Daniel Sol

Published: December 2012

Applies to: SQL Server 2012; Windows Azure SQL Database

Summary: SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) can be used effectively as a tool for moving data to and from Windows Azure (WA) SQL Database, as part of the total extract, transform, and load (ETL) solution and as part of the data movement solution. SSIS can be used effectively to move data between sources and destinations in the cloud, and in a hybrid scenario between the cloud and on-premise. This paper outlines SSIS best practices for cloud sources and destinations, discusses project planning for SSIS projects whether the project is all in the cloud or involves hybrid data moves, and walks through an example of maximizing performance on a hybrid move by scaling out the data movement.

To review the document, please download the SSIS Operational and Tuning Guide Word document.

SSIS for Azure and Hybrid Data Movement

SQL Server Technical Article

Writer: Alexei Khalyako, Carla Sabotta, Daniel Sol, Silvano Coriani, Sreedhar Pelluru, Steve Howard

Technical Reviewer: David Pless

Published: December 2012

Applies to: SQL Server 2012

Summary: SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) can be used effectively as a tool for moving data to and from Windows Azure SQL Database, as part of the total extract, transform, and load (ETL) solution and as part of the data movement solution. SSIS can be used effectively to move data between sources and destinations in the cloud, and in a hybrid scenario between the cloud and on-premise. This paper outlines best practices for using SSIS for cloud sources and destinations and for project planning for SSIS projects to be used with Azure or hybrid data moves, and gives an example of maximizing performance on a hybrid move by scaling out the data movement.

To review the document, please download the SSIS for Azure and Hybrid Data Movement Word document.

Technical Reviewers: Min He (Microsoft), Chuck Heinzelman (Microsoft), Alexi Khalyako (Microsoft), Charles Mathews (Microsoft), Prem Mehra (Microsoft) , Juergen Thomas (Microsoft), Mike Weiner (Microsoft), Amitabh Tamhane (Microsoft), Brent Ozar (Brent Ozar PLF), Gianluca Hotz (SolidQ), David P. Smith (ServiceU), Michael Steineke (Edgenet), Glenn Berry (SQLskills.com)

Content Program Manager: Glenn Minch (Microsoft)

Summary: SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) and AlwaysOn Availability Groups provide a comprehensive high availability and disaster recovery solution. Prior to SQL Server 2012, many customers used FCIs to provide local high availability within a data center and database mirroring for disaster recovery to a remote data center. With SQL Server 2012, this design pattern can be replaced with an architecture that uses FCIs for high availability and availability groups for disaster recovery business requirements. Availability groups leverage Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) functionality and enable multiple features not available in database mirroring. This paper details the key topology requirements of this specific design pattern, including asymmetric storage considerations, quorum model selection, quorum votes, steps required to build the environment, and a workflow illustrating how to handle a disaster recovery event in the new topology across participating job roles.

Read on:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj215886

Technical Reviewers: Lindsey Allen (MS), Juergen Thomas (MS), Mike Weiner (MS), Prem Mehra (MS), Yorihito Tada (MS), Curt Matthews (MS), Amitabh Tamhane (MS), Aditya Samant (MS), Daniel Janik (MS), Jimmy May (MS), David P Smith (ServiceU), Richard Waymire (SolidQ), Brent Ozar (Brent Ozar PLF), Wolfgang Kutschera (bwin.party), Paul S. Randal (SQLskills.com), Gianluca Hotz (SolidQ), Ayad Shammout (Caregroup)

Content Program Manager: Glenn Minch (Microsoft)

Summary: SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups provides a unified high availability and disaster recovery (HADR) solution that improves upon legacy functionality previously found across disparate features. Prior to SQL Server 2012, several customers used database mirroring to provide local high availability within a data center, and log shipping for disaster recovery across a remote data center. With SQL Server 2012, this common design pattern can be replaced with an architecture that uses availability groups for both high availability and disaster recovery. This paper details the key topology requirements of this specific design pattern, including quorum configuration considerations, steps required to build the environment, and a workflow that shows how to handle a disaster recovery event in the new topology.

Read on: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj191711

Contributors: Sanjay Mishra (Microsoft), David Smith (ServiceU Corporation), LeRoy Tuttle Jr. (Microsoft)

Technical Reviewers: Prem Mehra (Microsoft), Mike Weiner (Microsoft), Steve Howard (Microsoft), Kun Cheng (Microsoft)

Summary: Using Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) for local high availability within a data center and augmenting it with Database Mirroring (DBM) for disaster recovery has been a very popular HA+DR solution. With SQL Server 2012, this FCI+DBM solution can be replaced with a FCI+AG (Availability Groups) solution. This whitepaper describes how to migrate an existing FCI+DBM solution to a FCI+AG solution.

Read on: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh923056.aspx

Contributors: Cephas Lin (Microsoft), Justin Erickson (Microsoft), Lindsey Allen (Microsoft), Min He (Microsoft), Sanjay Mishra (Microsoft).

Reviewers: Alexei Khalyako (Microsoft), Allan Hirt (SQLHA), Ayad Shammout (Caregroup), Benjamin Wright-Jones (Microsoft), Charles Matthews (Microsoft), David P. Smith (ServiceU), Juergen Thomas (Microsoft), Kevin Farlee (Microsoft), Shahryar G. Hashemi (Motricity), Wolfgang Kutschera (Bwin Party).

Summary: This white paper discusses how to reduce planned and unplanned downtime, maximize application availability, and provide data protection using SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn high availability and disaster recovery solutions.

A key goal of this paper is to establish a common context for related discussions between business stakeholders, technical decision makers, system architects, infrastructure engineers, and database administrators.

The content is presented in two major parts:

High Availability and Disaster Recovery Concepts. Provide a brief discussion of the drivers and challenges of planning, managing, and measuring the business objectives of a highly available database environment. This discussion is followed by a brief overview of the high availability and disaster recovery capabilities of SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn and Windows Server solutions.

SQL Server AlwaysOn Layers of Protection. Provide a deeper discussion of the feature capabilities, rationale, and dependencies of the layers of protection offered by a SQL Server AlwaysOn solution. It will cover infrastructure availability, SQL Server instance-level protection, database-level protection, and data tier application capabilities. 

Read on: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh781257.aspx

Contributors: Lingwei Li, Mike Anderson (EMC Corporation)

Technical Reviewers: Shaun Tinline-Jones, Steve Howard, Prem Mehra, Paul Burpo, Mike Ruthruff, Jimmy May, Matt Neerincx, Dan Benediktson, Michael Steineke (Edgenet Inc.), David P. Smith (ServiceU Corporation)

Applies to: SQL Server 2012

Summary: SQL Server Failover Clustering, which includes support for both local and multisite failover configurations, is part of the SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn implementation suite, designed to provide high availability and disaster recovery for SQL Server. The multisite failover clustering technology has been enhanced significantly in SQL Server 2012. The multisite failover cluster architecture, enhancements in SQL Server 2012 to the technology, and some best practices to help with deployment of the technology are the primary focus of this paper.

You can download the complete document here: https://download.microsoft.com/download/D/2/0/D20E1C5F-72EA-4505-9F26-FEF9550EFD44/SQLServer2012_MultisiteFailoverCluster%20(2).docx