best practices for running microsoft sql server & windows
TRANSCRIPT
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Baris Furtinalar & David Donkers
Best Practices for Running
Microsoft SQL Server & Windows
File Server on AWS
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Speakers
Baris FurtinalarSpecialized Solutions Architect
David DonkersSr. Business Development Manager
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Agenda
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Agenda
Why?
Where?
How?
What’s next?
Why choose AWS for SQL Server workloads?
Where can I run SQL Server on AWS?
How do I migrate SQL Server databases to AWS?
Securing, monitoring, and managing SQL Server on AWS
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Why Choose AWS for SQL Server Workloads
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SQL Server on AWS exhibited 2X+ better price/performance than Azure (ZK Research)
SQL Server on Amazon EC2 consistently outperforms Azure across a variety of machine types
https://zkresearch.com/blog/2018/11/comparing-sql-server-deployments-on-microsoft-azure-and-amazon-web-services
on https://zkresearch.com,
0
500
1000
1500
3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233
AWS versus Azure Large*
configuration (TPM)
AWS Azure
$0
$200
$400
$600
Small Medium Large
Costs per 1 billion transactions
per month
AWS Azure
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Where can I run SQL Server on AWS
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Where can I run my SQL Server workloads on AWS?
Amazon Relational Database Service
(Amazon RDS)Managed service with up to 96 vCPU, 488 GB RAM, and 16 TB storage
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
(Amazon EC2)Self-managed virtual machine with up to 128 vCPU, 4TB RAM, and 400-TB storage
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Amazon RDS for SQL Server SQL Server on Amazon EC2
Power, HVAC, net
OS install/maintenance
OS patching
DBMS install/maintenance
DBMS patching
Database backups
High availability
Scaling
AWS managed Customer managed
Power, HVAC, net
OS install/maintenance
OS patching
DBMS install/maintenance
DBMS patching
Database backups
High availability
Scaling
• Consider RDS first
• Focus on business
value tasks
• High-level tuning
• Schema
optimization
• No in-house
database expertise
• Automatic Host
Replacement
• Need full control over
DB instance
• 3rd party server agents
• Clustering
• Options that are not
currently available in
Amazon RDS
Options for deploying SQL Server on AWS
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SQL Server features at a glance
Amazon RDS for SQL Server SQL Server on Amazon EC2
Versions supported 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 All**
Editions supported Express, Web, Standard, Enterprise All**
High availability AWS-managed Self-managed; AlwaysOn, Mirror, Log Ship
Encryption Encrypted Storage using AWS KMS (all editions); TDE support
Authentication Windows & SQL authentication
Backups Managed automated backups Maintenance plans & third-party tools
Maintenance Automatic software patching Self-managed
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Amazon RDS with SQL Server
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Amazon RDS: Hassle-free flexibility
Instance type selection
• t3 instances for lower cost
• m5 instances
• r5/z1d/x1e instances for more RAM
EBS volume type selection
• GP2 volumes for lower cost
• IO1 volumes for I/O intensive, critical workloads
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Scale compute and storage with ease
Scale compute to
handle increased load
Up to 128 vCPUs or
3096 GiB of RAM
Scale storage for
larger datasets
Scalable EBS
storage up to 16 TiB*
Scale down to
control costs
As little as 1 vCPU and
1 GiB of RAM
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Amazon RDS
Multi-AZ SQL Server
Region A
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Synchronous commit
Automatic failover
Amazon
RDS
primary
Amazon
RDS
secondary
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Amazon RDS
Multi-AZ SQL Server
Region A
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Synchronous commit
Automatic failover
Amazon
RDS
primary
Amazon
RDS
secondary
Managed service
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Amazon RDS Read Replica
Region A
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Asynchronous commit
Amazon
RDS
primary
Amazon
RDS
Read Replica
•Read replicas are only available on the SQL Server Enterprise Edition (EE) engine.
•Read replicas are available for SQL Server versions 2016 and later
•RDS must be a Multi-AZ deployment with Always On AGs
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Amazon EC2 with SQL Server
SQL Server
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Microsoft licensing on Amazon EC2
Dedicated host for
maximum virtualizationDefault tenancy
AWS licensing
Buy license-included
instances from AWSBring licenses to AWS
Requires Software Assurance with License Mobility
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Amazon EC2: Purpose-built computing
Current instance families and generation Family/usage
M5, M4, A1 General purpose compute
T2, T3 Burstable performance
C5, C5n, C4 Compute optimized
X1, X1E, R5, R5d, Z1dMemory
optimized
P2, G3, F1 Accelerated computing
I3, I3enStorage optimized
(I/O)
H1, D2Storage optimized
(Density)
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Amazon EC2: Scaling to meet your needs
• R5n networking performance up to 100 Gbps
• i3en local NVMe storage up to 60 TB
• X1e up to 4 TB RAM
• High memory instances with up to 24 TB RAM
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License optimization with Optimize CPUs for BYOL
• Control active vCPUs and hyperthreading status
when launching new EC2 instances
• Reduce the number of SQL Server licenses
Sample licensing example only
Instance type Total vCPUs Active vCPUs with
Optimize CPUs
SQL Server license
savings
r5.4xlarge 16 8 50%
r5.12xlarge 48 8 83%
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What is Amazon EC2 Instance Store?
• Local to instance
• Nonpersistent data store
• SSD or HDD
• Data not replicated (by default)
• No snapshot support
• Great option for tempdb
• Very fast NVMe on R5d, z1d, and i3
EC2 instances
Physical host
Instance store
or
Not all instance types have local, instance storage
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Amazon EBS
• Persistent block-level storage for EC2
• Pay only for what you provision
• Native redundancy and write cache
• Consistent and low-latency performance
• Optimized for random I/O
• Native support for encryption at rest (data volumes)
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High Availability
Asynchronous commit
Manual failover
and Disaster Recovery
VPC
Peering
Region A
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Synchronous
commit
Automatic failover
Region B
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Synchronous
commit
Automatic failover
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Amazon EC2
Multi-AZ Always On Availability Group
Region A
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Synchronous commit
Automatic failover
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Asynchronous commit
Manual failover
VPC
Peering
Region A
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Synchronous
commit
Automatic failover
Region B
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Amazon EC2SQL Availability Groups for HA and DR
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AWS Launch Wizard
Simple
Based on Best Practices
AutomatedTailoredEnd-to-end
AWS Launch Wizard for SQL Server
Guided experience to size, configure, and deploy SQL Server Always on solutions on Amazon EC2.
Size, deploy and configure
your workload
Easy GUI based interface
for deploymentWorkload is customized
to your needs
Deployment is
automated through a few
easy steps
Follows Well-Architected
framework
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AWS Launch Wizard for SQL Server
AWS Launch Wizard
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Amazon FSx simplifies SQL Server HA deploymentsWith Amazon FSx there is no need to deploy, manage, and pay license fees for storage replication software solutions
Availability Zone 2Availability Zone 1
AWS Region
SQL Server
FCI Primary
SQL Server
FCI
Secondary
Automatic Failover
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How do I migrate my SQL Server databases to AWS?
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Simple backup/restore migrations
Amazon RDS
Amazon EC2
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Hybrid distributed availability group
Region A
VPC
Availability Zone 1 Availability Zone 2
Private subnet Private subnet
Synchronous commit
Automatic failover
Synchronous commit
Automatic failover
Primary
replica
Secondary
replica
Corporate
data center
Asynchronous commit
Manual failover
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What are AWS DMS and AWS SCT?
AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) easily
and securely migrates and/or replicates your
databases and data warehouses to AWS
AWS Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT) converts your
commercial database and data warehouse schemas to
open-source engines or AWS-native services, such as
Amazon Aurora and Amazon Redshift
Over 200,000 databases migrated and counting…
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When to use AWS DMS and AWS SCT?
Migrate
• Migrate business-critical
applications
• Migrate from Classic to VPC
• Upgrade to a minor version
Modernize
Modernize your database tier
• Commercial to open source
• Commercial to Amazon Aurora
Modernize your data warehouse
• Commercial to Amazon Redshift
Replicate
• Create cross-region read replicas
• Run your analytics in the cloud
• Keep your dev/test and
production environment in sync
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Securing, monitoring, and managing SQL Server on AWS
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Amazon CloudWatch
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Amazon CloudWatch
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SQL Server on Amazon RDS
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Performance insights
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Flexibility to enforce
license usage
Learn more at aws.amazon.com/license-manager
AWS License Manager
Leverage native
AWS Services
Manage licenses across hybrid
environments
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Moving to Managed File Systems for WindowsCloud File Share
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Files are everywhere!
1
2
3
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Are you faced with these on-premises storage
challenges?
Growing infrastructure costs
Storage and compute capacity limits
Ongoing management overhead
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Using the right tool
For Your Workload
Amazon FSx
for Lustre
Amazon FSx
for Windows File Server
Amazon Elastic File
Service (Amazon EFS)
Windows-Based
Workloads
Linux-Based
WorkloadsHigh-Performance
Workloads
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How can we help in windows space?
Easy Lift and ShiftFully managed file
shares built on
Windows
Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
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Delivering a better file
system for Windows, built on
WindowsJoins to
customer AD with full
Windows ACLs
`
Amazon FSx for Windows
File Server
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Designed for a wide spectrum of use cases…
Home
directoriesLine-of-business
applications
Web serving and
content management
Software
development
environments
HA SQL Server
databasesBackup and
disaster recovery
NAS lift-and-shift
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Global availability
and scalability
Multiple File
Protocols
Fully ManagedReliability and
durability
Cost EffectiveStorage and
archival options
Seamlessly transition to cloud-backed file shares on AWS
Migrate your on-premises file shares without disruption to applications and end users
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How easy it to lift and shift?
• DataSync establishes and manages a secure connection to your FSx-Windows systems
• SMB to SMB, same protocol as on-premises, no need to refactor or rearchitect
• It just works!
Shared
file systemNetApp, Isilon, IBM, Windows File Servers
SMB
AWS DataSyncAmazon FSx for
Windows
SMB
AWS RegionOn-Premises
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What fully-managed means for our customers
“We no longer need to worry about maintenance of the file system
environment or patching of the underlying servers. This is allowing
the team to focus on more business-critical parts of our
application structure.” -John Waller, Senior Engineer, DocXellent
"We were able move our Windows file-based application to AWS
quickly and solved a critical performance issue. Based on our
successful lift-and-shift experience, we’re looking to move more
of our legacy applications requiring Windows native
compatibility, to Amazon FSx.” -Hemanth Jayaraman, Director,
Cloud Center of Excellence
“With Amazon FSx we have a managed solution that eliminates the need for us
to manage the tasks associated with operating file storage, including
performing backups and applying software patches." -Greg Bell, Senior
Systems Administrator
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FSx pricing(per GB-month)
HDD-based storage
SSD-based storage
Single-AZ Multi-AZ
New!
SSD
HDD
LOWESTcost file storage in the cloud
Note: Based on Amazon FSx for Windows File Server pricing in US East (N. Virginia)
Typical savings from deduplication for general file shares is additional 50-60%
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Q&A