I have come across Glenn Berry’s e-book by accident on twitter while ago by accident, downloaded it and then liked it very much. I have read it over one evening and first thing I did next day after arriving to work was forwarding it to all my coworkers.
What was the most interesting for me (as I share Glenn’s interest in hardware) was the detailed description of several interesting configurations using current hardware, as well as some future trends (like enterprise SSD drives, AMD Bulldozer or new Intel CPU). It just picks up where most of the books and guides leave you – for instance when most authors tell you to set up RAID-1 for logs and RAID-10 for database files, Glenn gives you an overview what actual models and what exact configuration may be applied and what is the cost of it. Furthermore, he shows what CPUs and in which configuration are preferred depending on your worklad (OLTP differs from OLAP). You will see that RAM is cheap and you don’t have to save on it. Last but not least, you will get a pocket-friendly suggestion on how to build a workstation for SQL Server.
If you have some second thoughts while picking up hardware for your new SQL Server, you have always bought 1-2-3-style machines (CPU/RAM/HDD count) or you’re simply interested in computer hardware and databases, this book is for you. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
