File Management

PeopleSoft recommends the use of separate physical disks for the Microsoft SQL Server data files. Ideally, databases like master, tempdb, and application databases should be on separate disks, as should the operating system paging file (in case you run some additional applications other than the database software). As a general rule, the more spindles the better; always choose more smaller-size disks over fewer larger-size disks. If you don't have separate physical disks for each of the datafiles, you should at least place your tempdb, data, and log files on separate physical devices. Make sure that your log device is using its own disk controller and is not accessed by any other device.

Note:

You should always consider disk fault tolerance when deciding how you want the database server configured.

Using Filegroups

Microsoft SQL Server maps each database using a set of operating system files. All database objects and data are stored within these files. A database can have one or more data files (.mdf and .ndf extensions) and transaction log files (.ldf extension).

Filegroups are logical containers that enable the database files (.mdf, .ndf, and .ldf) to be grouped together for administrative and data placement purposes. While a filegroup can contain more than one database file, each database file can be a member of only one filegroup.

Note:

While the number and placement of data files may have an impact on system performance, the number and organization of filegroups has no direct correlation to performance.

Because of the large number of tables and the complex IO patterns of a PeopleSoft database, you must consider the placement of the data files carefully to maximize performance. The best approach is to use a RAID-10 disk configuration and spread the data over as many disks as possible. Use a large number of smaller sized disks, rather than a small number of larger disks.

In addition to the main database, give careful consideration to the configuration and placement of the SQL Server Tempdb database, because PeopleSoft applications use it heavily. Given the unusual input/output characteristics of this database (on average, 50% read, 50% write), you should create your Tempdb database on a separate RAID-10 disk with multiple database files. Generally, it's appropriate to make the number of data files equal to the number of processors used.

For more information, see the product documentation for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Windows.