Professional Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Administration

11.5. Configuring Server Hardware

On most small- to medium-size servers, a common configuration for database servers is to make a BIOS change to enable hyperthreading, if based on your database testing you have determined that hyperthreading will provide a performance improvement for your scenario. Once this option is set, most of the remaining tasks are related to physically installing RAM, I/O adapters such as NICs, and disk adapters for SCSI or SATA. Moreover, review the vendors' documentation for any additional configuration options that they recommend.

On medium to large systems, you will find a variety of management software to help you configure, operate, and maintain the hardware. Most hardware vendors have their own version of this kind of software, offering a wide variety of capabilities and options.

On large enterprise systems such as the HP Superdome, NEC5800 Express, or Unisys ES7000 family, configuring the server hardware has entered a whole new dimension. On these larger enterprise systems, you will find a management processor (MP) within the server. The management processor, and its software interface, controls the hardware — from booting a hardware partition, to configuring a different hardware partition, to changing memory layout, to managing the power to different hardware components. The management processor handles all of these tasks.

The tasks that need to be achieved to manage all the large systems are very similar, but the way each hardware vendor implements ...