This paper describes a demo highlighting the benefits of solid state drives and low voltage DDR3 memory when running a Microsoft SQL Server database workload in a VMware vSphere virtualized environment using the HP ProLiant DL385 G7 server.
Executive summary
As processor, memory, and disk technology have improved, HP ProLiant G7 servers have become ideal platforms for consolidating applications with virtual machines. In particular, the computing power of multi-core processors, large DDR3 low power memory capacity, and the performance advantages of HP 3G SATA hot plug solid state disks make a compelling case for consolidating a number of database instances onto a single virtualized host system. This paper describes tests to characterize database I/O that were done by HP in collaboration with Samsung on two identical HP ProLiant DL385 G7 servers — one with HP 3G SATA solid state disks based on Samsung Green SSD technology, and one with standard 15K RPM enterprise SAS drives. The examples describe tests done with a Microsoft® SQL Server I/O simulator tool, but the techniques and results likely would be similar for other database management software. The results of the tests clearly demonstrate the superior performance of servers with HP 3G SATA solid state disks over servers with traditional rotating media drives.
Target audience: This paper is intended for anyone with an interest in consolidating database instances into virtual machines that use a very high performance storage subsystem on the host server.
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