From jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com Thu Jul 8 09:42:58 2010 From: jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com (jwcolby) Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:42:58 -0400 Subject: [dba-SQLServer] My SQL slowness Message-ID: <4C35E3F2.6040309@colbyconsulting.com> I have reported problems with very slow performance of my billing SQL Server database. The database was running on my laptop and the performance was abysmal. Well today I decided to move it to my SQL Server machine and holy smoke batman, it is blazing fast. So whatever the problem, it is related to the SQL Server instance on my laptop. Now to troubleshoot how to make it faster there. I have some natural limitations of course since I only have two cores and 3.25 gigs of RAM TOTAL for the laptop. I didn't really expect that to be an issue since the database itself is only a few megs. What would be really nice would be to somehow run off of the server when I am at home (99% of the time) but keep the laptop synced to the server so that I could switch to the local copy when I am on the road. At that point I would probably just put up with the slowness, although now that I know that the slowness is in my local instance I will definitely troubleshoot further. On that note however... I have a view that I used to allow me to enter my time records. On my local machine it allows me to add records. On the remote server it does not. All of my tables do allow me to enter data if opened directly (in Access in the table window). That problem aside, I shall definitely enjoy my new found speed. -- John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com From jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com Fri Jul 9 14:06:48 2010 From: jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com (jwcolby) Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:06:48 -0400 Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Suddenly I can see Message-ID: <4C377348.9030103@colbyconsulting.com> I bought a nice little (big actually) 4U rack mount case for my SQL Server, the new widget I am building. The cool thing about this case is that it uses 20 hot swap disk sleds, and they have a very neat little light pipe system to display the power and activity on each disk. The disk sleds plug in to a backplane, and on that backplane are a green power and blue data LED. There are two clear plastic light pipes along the side of the sled which pipes the light to the front so it can be seen. Really cool I thought. What this means to me is that for the first time I can actually see which disks are in use. The server "lights up like a Christmas tree" when stuff is actually written to disk. I am now able to actually compare the screen as I run processes, and watch the lights and I'm here to tell you, my disks are not the bottleneck. SQL Server will process for many seconds and then a burst of disk activity a half second long, then many seconds of crunching, then a half second of disk activity. -- John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com From jlawrenc1 at shaw.ca Fri Jul 9 14:33:33 2010 From: jlawrenc1 at shaw.ca (Jim Lawrence) Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 12:33:33 -0700 Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Suddenly I can see In-Reply-To: <4C377348.9030103@colbyconsulting.com> References: <4C377348.9030103@colbyconsulting.com> Message-ID: <9017DB22D1D747B791FBC524A46E5557@creativesystemdesigns.com> Ouuuu... new toys. 8-) Jim -----Original Message----- From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 12:07 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving; VBA; Sqlserver-Dba Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Suddenly I can see I bought a nice little (big actually) 4U rack mount case for my SQL Server, the new widget I am building. The cool thing about this case is that it uses 20 hot swap disk sleds, and they have a very neat little light pipe system to display the power and activity on each disk. The disk sleds plug in to a backplane, and on that backplane are a green power and blue data LED. There are two clear plastic light pipes along the side of the sled which pipes the light to the front so it can be seen. Really cool I thought. What this means to me is that for the first time I can actually see which disks are in use. The server "lights up like a Christmas tree" when stuff is actually written to disk. I am now able to actually compare the screen as I run processes, and watch the lights and I'm here to tell you, my disks are not the bottleneck. SQL Server will process for many seconds and then a burst of disk activity a half second long, then many seconds of crunching, then a half second of disk activity. -- John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com _______________________________________________ dba-SQLServer mailing list dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver http://www.databaseadvisors.com From jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com Fri Jul 9 15:33:24 2010 From: jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com (jwcolby) Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:33:24 -0400 Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Suddenly I can see In-Reply-To: <9017DB22D1D747B791FBC524A46E5557@creativesystemdesigns.com> References: <4C377348.9030103@colbyconsulting.com> <9017DB22D1D747B791FBC524A46E5557@creativesystemdesigns.com> Message-ID: <4C378794.40105@colbyconsulting.com> > Ouuuu... new toys. 8-) Jim LOL, Yep! 8-) PRETTY new toy! John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Jim Lawrence wrote: > Ouuuu... new toys. 8-) Jim > > -----Original Message----- > From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby > Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 12:07 PM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving; VBA; Sqlserver-Dba > Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Suddenly I can see > > I bought a nice little (big actually) 4U rack mount case for my SQL Server, > the new widget I am > building. > > The cool thing about this case is that it uses 20 hot swap disk sleds, and > they have a very neat > little light pipe system to display the power and activity on each disk. > The disk sleds plug in to > a backplane, and on that backplane are a green power and blue data LED. > There are two clear plastic > light pipes along the side of the sled which pipes the light to the front so > it can be seen. Really > cool I thought. > > What this means to me is that for the first time I can actually see which > disks are in use. The > server "lights up like a Christmas tree" when stuff is actually written to > disk. > > I am now able to actually compare the screen as I run processes, and watch > the lights and I'm here > to tell you, my disks are not the bottleneck. SQL Server will process for > many seconds and then a > burst of disk activity a half second long, then many seconds of crunching, > then a half second of > disk activity. > From jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com Sat Jul 17 23:01:36 2010 From: jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com (jwcolby) Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:01:36 -0400 Subject: [dba-SQLServer] disk drive temps for the Norco 4020 Message-ID: <4C427CA0.4040400@colbyconsulting.com> I bought the Norco 4020 to build a server with. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021&cm_re=4u_rackmount_case-_-11-219-021-_-Product I am impressed with the case, though it is consumer grade. It is tough to work with however. It has a fan wall just behind the disk drive cage which leaves exactly two inches between the fans and the disk backplanes. Obviously it is impossible to leave the wall in place and get all of the cables in, but removing the fan wall is a job for a safe cracker. None the less I did so, got 20 disks in and cabled up, then reinserted the fan wall, and then threaded the cables through the holes in the BOTTOM of the fan wall. Why on earth they didn't leave the holes on the top of the fan wall is beyond me but they didn't. Anyway, for the first time tonight I tested temps with all 20 drives inserted and power applied, and the fan wall operating. I ran a defrag on every volume simultaneously in order to cause the disks to work and generate as much heat as I could cause. Below are the temps. CPU Temperature 55 ?C Ctrl Temperature 49 ?C Power +12V 12.099 V Power +5V 5.053 V Power +3.3V 3.328 V SATA PHY +2.5V 2.528 V DDR-II +1.8V 1.872 V PCI-E +1.8V 1.872 V CPU +1.8V 1.856 V CPU +1.2V 1.232 V DDR-II +0.9V 0.928 V Hdd#1 Temperature 37 ?C Hdd#2 Temperature 40 ?C Hdd#3 Temperature 42 ?C Hdd#4 Temperature 39 ?C Hdd#5 Temperature 47 ?C Hdd#6 Temperature 51 ?C Hdd#7 Temperature 49 ?C Hdd#8 Temperature 46 ?C Hdd#9 Temperature 37 ?C Hdd#10 Temperature 49 ?C Hdd#11 Temperature 44 ?C Hdd#12 Temperature 47 ?C Hdd#13 Temperature 45 ?C Hdd#14 Temperature 50 ?C Hdd#15 Temperature 49 ?C Hdd#16 Temperature 42 ?C There are only 16 drives showing because these 16 are cabled up to my Areca raid co-processor card which is a 16 port card, and that card provides a utility to watch these numbers. The other disks are not being driven but do have power applied. I am satisfied with the temps. Several disks actually hit 53 degrees C under max stress but that is acceptable to me. I would like lower temps but I can live with these. BTW I am using the Corsair 750W modular PS which is a NICE PS. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010 The 12V cables are ribbon cables which makes them very easy to run and minimizes the air flow impedance. With only 2 inches to work with between the fans and disks, I need all the help I can get. -- John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com From garykjos at gmail.com Sun Jul 18 10:09:29 2010 From: garykjos at gmail.com (Gary Kjos) Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:09:29 -0500 Subject: [dba-SQLServer] disk drive temps for the Norco 4020 In-Reply-To: <4C427CA0.4040400@colbyconsulting.com> References: <4C427CA0.4040400@colbyconsulting.com> Message-ID: I was reading some of the reviews posted on the Newegg site when you first posted the link to your new server case and it seemed like other people who purchased it were concerned about the heat the disks would be creating due to lack of space between the drives etc. Nice that you can monitor them. Continued good luck with your new server. GK On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 11:01 PM, jwcolby wrote: > I bought the Norco 4020 to build a server with. > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021&cm_re=4u_rackmount_case-_-11-219-021-_-Product > > I am impressed with the case, though it is consumer grade. ?It is tough to work with however. ?It > has a fan wall just behind the disk drive cage which leaves exactly two inches between the fans and > the disk backplanes. ?Obviously it is impossible to leave the wall in place and get all of the > cables in, but removing the fan wall is a job for a safe cracker. > > -- Gary Kjos garykjos at gmail.com From jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com Thu Jul 29 19:35:49 2010 From: jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com (jwcolby) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:35:49 -0400 Subject: [dba-SQLServer] BCP out, records affected Message-ID: <4C521E65.8070707@colbyconsulting.com> I am running a stored procedure to BCP out a chunk of records. The stored procedure uses exec master..xp_cmdshell @sql to perform the BCP out. Is it possible to get a "records affected" back from command shell ofr the SQL statement executed? If not is there another way to do this? -- John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com