An extra tool to improve SQL Server’s performance
Microsoft published a new white paper on Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for SQL Server.
Disk partition alignment is a powerful tool for improving SQL Server performance. Configuring optimal disk performance is often viewed as much art as science. A best practice that is essential yet often overlooked is disk partition alignment. Windows Server 2008 attempts to align new partitions out-of-the-box, yet disk partition alignment remains a relevant technology for partitions created on prior versions of Windows.
I’d personally never even heard of the term partitioin alignment, but according to Chris Webb it is a must-read
. If you’re running SQL Server on Windows 2003 or before, or, rightly pointed out by Chris, running Windows Server 2008 on partitions created by an earlier version of Windows Server, then this paper might prove to be a great way to further tune the performance of SQL Server.