Module 2

Data Warehouse
Hardware
Module Overview
• Considerations for Building a Data Warehouse

• Data Warehouse Reference Architectures and Appliances

Lesson 1: Considerations for Building a Data
Warehouse
• Data Warehouse Workloads

• Data Warehouse System Architecture

• Options for Implementing a Data Warehouse

Data Warehouse Workloads

• Queries scan large numbers of rows

• Queries run against relatively static data

• Large numbers of nonclustered indexes are not required

• Partitioning can improve performance

Query processing
Data Warehouse System Architecture

• Software
 Windows Server Datacenter or Enterprise
 SQL Server Enterprise

• Server Hardware
 Processors
 Memory

• Storage
 Enclosures
 Disk arrays

• Networking
 Storage connectivity
 External network connectivity
Options for Implementing a Data Warehouse

Custom-build

Reference Data warehouse

architectures appliances
Lesson 2: Data Warehouse Reference Architectures
and Appliances
• Fast Track Data Warehouse

• Data Warehouse Appliances

• Parallel Data Warehouse Appliances

Fast Track Data Warehouse

• Validated configurations from a

range of hardware vendors
 Structured assessment of
requirements
 Faster implementations
 Reduced cost

• Balanced approach to hardware

• Use the Fast Track System Sizing

Tool to determine the right
configuration for your needs
Data Warehouse Appliances

• Pre-built hardware and software

solutions based on tested configurations
• Part of a range of SQL Server-based
appliances
• Available from multiple hardware
vendors
Parallel Data Warehouse Appliances

• Based on SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse

• Massively parallel processing

• Shared-nothing architecture

• Dedicated control nodes, compute nodes, and storage nodes

Control Node
Cluster
Database servers

Dual Fiber Channel

Infiniband
(compute nodes)
Management
Servers

Landing Zone
(ETL Interface) Storage Arrays

Backup Nodes
Module Review
• How do data warehouse workloads differ from typical OLTP
workloads?
• What are the advantages of using reference architectures
to create a data warehouse?
• What are the key differences between SMP and MPP
systems?