SQL Server Hardware and Acronyms

Over the weekend I finished reading yet another Red Gate book, this one was SQL Server Hardware by Glenn Berry (t - b).  Having earned my crust as a Windows Engineer before honing my SQL Server Skills and becoming a DBA, I have had this book on my reading list since it was published but thought others would give me more benefit and teach me more.  Oh how wrong I was, I honestly thought 99% of this book I would already know but the reality is that quite a few of the ideas and practices in this book  I have overlooked.  There are some great nuggets in here like Windows Power Plans for example.  Windows Power Plans to quote Glenn are;

“Designed to let you manage how your server uses power, this setting can have a dramatic effect on processor performance, and is controlled through Windows as well as the firmware BIOS settings”

Our SQL Server estate was indeed using the Balanced plan, taking Glenn’s advice and testing the changes we were able to achieve around a 15% improvement in CPU performance on a 2 CPU server.  Given this has no up-front cost, is a low risk change with no downtime surely this is a no brainer?!  Yes there is a small increase in power consumption somewhere around 5%-10% between the Balanced and High performance plans but the performance increase is surly worth this.

Go on have a look, I would be interested to see if anyone else has overlooked this setting.  Glenn’s book can be found over at SQL Server Central, the eBook format is also FREE!

Anyway, back to what I wanted to bring to your attention, the IT industry is full off acronyms many of which are duplicated across technologies.  One of the cool features of Glenn’s book is that Appendix C contains a list of abbreviations used in the book.  Below is the complete list;

AMB	Advanced Memory Buffer
AMD	Advanced Micro Devices
API	Application Programming Interface
AWE	Address Windowing Extensions
BI	Business Intelligence
BIOS	Basic Input Output System
CAL	Client Access License
CDC	Change Data Capture
CIFS	Common Internet File System
CISC	Complex Instruction Set Computer
CPI	Cost per Instruction
CSS	Customer Service and Support
CU	Cumulative Update
DAC	Data Tier Application
DACPAC	Data Tier Application Package
DAS	Direct Attached Storage
DDL	Data Definition Language
DDR	Data Dependent Routing
DESC	in T-SQL, Descending
DIMM	Dual in-line Memory Modules
DML	Data Manipulation Language
DMV	Dynamic Management View
DPV	Distributed Partitioned Views
DRAM	Dynamic Random Access Memory
DSS	Decision Support System
DW	Data Warehouse
EE	Enterprise Edition
EFD	Enterprise Flash Disks
EIST	Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology
EP	Extended Protection
EPIC	Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing
EPT	Extended Page Tables
FDR	Full Disclosure Report
HBA	Host Bus Adaptors
HT	Hyper-threading
IDE	Integrated Drive Electronics
ILP	Instruction Level Parallelism
IOP	Input Output Operation
IOPS	Input/Output Operations per Second
ISM	Incremental Servicing Model
ISV	Independent Software Vendor
LPIM	Lock Pages in Memory
LUN	Logical Unit Number
MAXDOP	Max Degree of Parallelism
MCH	Memory Controller Hub
MDS	Master Data Services
MLC	Multi Level Cell
MMC	Microsoft Management Console
MPIO	Multi Path Input Output
NIC	Network Interface Card
NTLM	NT Lan Manager
NUMA	Non-Uniform Memory Architecture
ODBC	Open Database Connectivity
OEM	Original Equipment Manufacturer
OLAP	Online Analytical Processing
OLTP	Online Transaction Processing
OMSA	Open Manage System Administrator
PAE	Physical Address Extension
PATA	Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment
PCU	Public Cumulative Update
PK	Primary Key
POST	Power On Self-Test
QPI	Quick Path Interconnect
RAID	Redundant Array of Independent Disk
RAS	Reliability, Availability and Serviceability
RDIMM	Registered Dual In-line Memory Modules
RISC	Reduced Instruction Set Computer
RPO	Recovery Point Objective
RTM	Release to Manufacturing
RTO	Recovery Time Objective
RVI	Rapid Virtualization Indexing
SAN	Storage Area Network
SAS	Serial Attached SCSI
SATA	Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
SCOM	System Center Operations Manager
SCSI	Small Computer System Interface
SKU	Stock Keeping Unit
SLAT	Second Level Address Translation
SLC	Single Level Cell
SMB	Server Message Block
SMP	Symmetrical Multiprocessing
SPD	Serial Presence Detect
SPEC	Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
SQLCAT	SQL Server Customer Advisory Team
SQLIO	SQL IO, a disk benchmarking utility
SQLOS	SQL Server Operating System
SSAS	SQL Server Analysis Services
SSD	Solid-State Drives
SSMS	SQL Server Management Studio
SSRS	SQL Server Reporting Services
SUT	System Under Test
TAP	Technology Adoption Program
TDE	Transparent Data Encryption
TPC	Transaction Processing Performance Council
TpsE	Transactions per second for TPC-E benchmark
UCP	Utility Control Point
VAS	Virtual Address Space
VT	Virtual Technology
WSUS	Windows Server Update Services

Enjoy!

Chris