Monday, September 23, 2024

How do you test reliability of I/O for installing a SQL Server?

SQLIOSIM is a tool for simulating SQL Server IO. SQLIOSIM performs reliability and integrity tests on the disk systems that SQL Server utilizes for data and log files. 

It simulates,

Read

Write

Checkpoint

Backup

Sort and 

Read-ahead activities of MS SQL Server.

Main objective of SQLIOSIM is to test the reliability of the underlying I/O subsystem even before installing SQL Server. This proactive tool helps preparing well for the installation. SQL Server installation is not needed for using it as it does not interact with the SQL Server. If an installation exists, using it may overwrite the files. It is not a tool for data security. It is an upgrade over the previous SQ7IOStress utility.

It is located in the Program Files/Microsoft SQL Server/MSSql16.<Named Instance>MSSQL/BINN folder of your installation.

In the installation described here, there are two SQLIOSIM related files in the BINN folder.

SQLIOSIM Application (SqLIOSIM.exe)----GUI

SQLIOSIM DOS file (SQLIOSIM.com)--DOS 

For using SQLIOSIM.com you need to configure the SQLIOSIM configuration file.


What if you cannot locate the file?

If the file is not found as in this installation, it can be found in GitHub. However, it is not found on the GitHub and one may need to go to Microsoft or raise the issue. As we see later, there may be a way out using the GUI.


https://github.com/microsoft/mssql-support/blame/master/sqliosim/Readme.md


The SQLIOSIM gui can be launched using the SQLIOSIM.exe application in the BINN folder.

Double click the SQLIOSIM application in the BINN folder to launch the GUI.


Click SIMULATOR t open the Simulator. Simulator->Configure will open the Files and Configuration GUI as shown.

From here on it can be used to configure the .mdx and .ldx file locations, size  and max size and Increment parameters on the computer and test patterns for integrity testing can be carried out. Do not choose the existing .mdx and .ldx file locations as they will be overwritten during testing.












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