Over Twenty Years of Experience in One Course

David Klee here, Microsoft Data Platform MVP and VMware vExpert. For years, I’ve traveled the world educating technical audiences on deep-dive topics around how data and infrastructure / cloud technologies converge. With the pandemic, the in-person events have changed for now, but the need to make all of the layers at and underneath the database work to your advantage hasn’t changed one bit. In fact, I would argue it’s even more critical now than ever to look for cost savings, and performance improvements in all layers of the system stack. My first on-demand course is called the SQL Server on VMware Accelerator. This master class is designed to accelerate your knowledge and provide over two decades of tips, tricks, and architectural guidance on how to get the most performance and availability out of your SQL Server on VMware deployments, all while looking for cost reduction opportunities. This 8.5 hour full-stack master class ramps you up on everything you need to know about all of the layers underneath the database, including the following modules and lessons.

Module 1 is below so you can get a good idea of the depth of the content throughout the remainder of the modules.

Watch Intro Video

Module 1 - Introduction to SQL Server on VMware

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Module 1: Introduction

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • What is Virtualization?

    • Resources & Queues

    • Containers & Cloud

    • Shared Everything

    • VMware Virtualization

    • Virtualization Pros & Cons

    • Platform Layers

    • Module Wrapup
  • 2

    Module 2: Enterprise Storage

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Storage Mediums

    • Storage Classes

    • Demo: Network Attached Storage

    • Storage Area Networks (SANs)

    • Demo: Flash Hybrid SAN

    • Demo: All-Flash SAN

    • Hyperconverged Storage

    • Cloud Storage

    • Storage Presentation & Allocation

    • Data Savings

    • Demo: SAN-Level Data Savings

    • Data Savings Challenges

    • Demo: Storage Benchmarking with Microsoft DiskSpd

    • Module Wrapup
  • 3

    Module 3: Networking & Interconnects

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Network & Interconnect Fabric

    • Throughput & Frame Size

    • Demo: Network Throughput Testing with iperf

    • Monitoring

    • VLANs

    • Module Wrapup
  • 4

    Module 4: Physical Server

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Physical Server Hardware

    • Modern Processors

    • Processor NUMA

    • Processor Benchmarking

    • Demo: CPU-Z & Geekbench

    • Memory

    • Local Storage

    • Networking & Interconnects

    • Module Wrapup
  • 5

    Module 5: VMware ESXi

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • What is Virtualization?

    • Resources & Queues

    • Host Resource Oversubscription

    • Demo: Noisy Neighbors

    • Virtual Machine Limits

    • Host-Level Settings

    • Block-Level Storage Presentation

    • Datastore DSNRO

    • Network-Based Storage Presentation

    • vMotion

    • Network Segmentation

    • Module Wrapup
  • 6

    Module 6: VMware Host Cluster

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • VMware vCenter

    • Host Cluster

    • Host Cluster Configuration

    • Affinity Rules

    • Resource Pools

    • Module Wrapup
  • 7

    Module 7: SQL Server Virtual Machine

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Anatomy of a Virtual Machine

    • Virtual CPU Architecture

    • Virtual CPU Scheduling

    • Virtual CPU Presentation

    • Demo: vNUMA Overrides

    • vNUMA Verification

    • Demo: vNUMA Perfect Storm

    • vNUMA & VM Settings

    • Automatic Soft-NUMA

    • vMemory

    • vNetwork Adapters

    • vDisks

    • Raw Device Maps & Virtual Volumes

    • In-Guest Storage Presentation

    • Virtual Disk Controllers

    • SQL Server Availability Feature Considerations

    • Additional Considerations

    • Constructing the Ideal Base SQL Server VM

    • Module Wrapup
  • 8

    Module 8: Windows Server OS

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Windows OSE Tuning

    • Module Wrapup
  • 9

    Module 9: Linux OS

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • SQL Server on Linux

    • Setup Similarities to Windows

    • Demo: SQL Server Installation

    • Demo: SQL Server Object Disk Setup

    • Demo: Moving SQL Server Objects

    • Demo: Moving TempDB

    • Demo: Network Backups

    • Module Wrapup
  • 10

    Module 10: SQL Server Instance

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Installed Instance Count

    • Disk Distribution

    • Service Features

    • Instance Defaults

    • Instance Parallelism

    • Instance Memory

    • Maintenance

    • Module Wrapup
  • 11

    Module 11: Performance Tuning

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Right-Sizing

    • Right-Sizing CPUs

    • Demo: Perfmon Setup

    • Demo: Perfmon Import

    • Perfmon Data Analysis

    • Core Count Determination & Alignment

    • vCPU Scheduling

    • vCPU Ready Time

    • Demo: vCPU Ready Time

    • vCPU Co-Stop Time

    • Demo: vCPU Co-Stop Time

    • In-Guest Scheduling Overhead Metrics

    • Demo: Demand vs. Entitlement

    • vMemory

    • vCPU Scheduling Overhead Monitoring

    • Host Memory Pressure

    • Memory Ballooning Prevention

    • Demo: Active Memory Counter

    • Virtual Disk Performance Lesson

    • Demo: VMware Datastore Latency

    • Pending Disk IOs

    • In-Guest Latency & Infrastructure Layers

    • Demo: SQL Server Disk Stall Collection and Analysis

    • vNetwork Performance

    • Module Wrapup
  • 12

    Module 12: Availability Tuning

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Defining Data Continuity

    • Platform Availability Thoughts

    • SQL Server Availability Features

    • VM-Layer Availability Features

    • Backups & Restores

    • Backup Validation

    • High Availability Architectures

    • Windows Server Failover Clusters

    • Failover Cluster Instances

    • Availability Groups

    • Disaster Recovery

    • Organizational BC Strategy

    • Module Wrapup
  • 13

    Module 13: SQL Server Licensing

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • SQL Server Licensing Levels

    • Software Assurance

    • Licensing Models

    • Licensing Availability

    • Standard Deployment Models

    • Host Virtual Machine Density & Licensing Optimization

    • Capacity Management

    • Module Wrapup
  • 14

    Module 14: Operations

    • Introduction & Agenda

    • Operational Tasks

    • vMotion & Storage vMotion

    • Backup & Recovery Tips

    • New SQL Server VM Deployment

    • Database Refreshes

    • Capacity Management

    • Module Wrapup
  • 15

    Module 15: Course Wrap Up

    • Introduction & Continuing Education

    • Test Environment

    • Module Wrap Up & Thank You

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Start improving the performance and availability while reducing costs of your SQL Server on VMware environment! $499 for six months of on-demand access.

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