Professional SQL Server® 2005 Performance Tuning

12.3. Storage Reliability

To help build your confidence in the robustness and reliability of your storage subsystem you need to run a stress test. There are a number of tools you can use for this. LoadSim and JetStress are I/O stress tools optimized for Exchange I/O patterns. IOMeter is another highly configurable open source I/O stress tool. This chapter focuses on the latest I/O stress test tool from Microsoft: SQLIOSim.

SQLIOStress is a tool written by the SQL Server support team. It was the preferred tool for stress testing SQL Server I/O, but has since been replaced by SQLIOSim.

12.3.1. SQLIOSim

SQLIOSim is a new I/O stress tool that simulates SQL Server 2005 I/O patterns. It was written by the SQL Server engine team and is based upon the same code that SQL Server uses for its I/O. Like SQLIOStress, SQLIOSim doesn't require SQL Server to be installed to run and is a standalone stress test tool.

SQLIOSim is the I/O stress test tool of preference for stress testing an I/O subsystem that's going to be used with SQL Server.

12.3.2. Using SQLIOSim

The first step is to download the tool from the Microsoft download center. The starting point for this is to find the related KB article. Currently this is 231619 and is located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/231619.

After downloading the appropriate msi and installing it to your favorite location (here: c:\tools\sqliosim) the next step is to figure out how to run it, and how to get it to test the disks you want tested.

There are ...