SQL SERVER 2008

SQL Server Builds ❘ 409
Making the effort to watch for SQL Server service packs and cumulative updates, checking the
fi x list, downloading them, testing them, and deploying them in your production environment is a
benefi cial exercise for you and your organization. Deploying these updates using a planned, rolling
upgrade strategy enables you to complete the deployments with minimal service interruptions, and
it forces you to exercise some of your high-availability (HA), disaster-recovery (DR) infrastructure
while keeping your servers up to date. I think this is much better than being a DBA who is overly
hesitant to apply any SQL Server updates because you are afraid you might break something.
The next query you want to run, shown in Listing 15-3, will give you a little more information
about your operating system on the database server, including the language.
LISTING 15-3: Windows information
-- Windows information (SQL Server 2012)
SELECT windows_release, windows_service_pack_level,
windows_sku, os_language_version
FROM sys.dm_os_windows_info WITH (NOLOCK) OPTION (RECOMPILE);
-- Gives you major OS version, Service Pack, Edition,
-- and language info for the operating system
The preceding query simply gives you a little more specifi c information about the operating system,
in a form that is easier to fi lter and parse than what you get from SELECT @@VERSION. Now that you
know more about your operating system, you can start to gather some hardware information.
The query shown in Listing 15-4 indicates how many logical processors you have, the hyperthread
ratio of the processors, how many physical CPUs you have, and how much physical memory you
have in your database server. It also indicates whether you are running in a virtual machine and
when SQL Server was last started. Unfortunately, the hyperthread ratio does not distinguish
between logical and physical cores in each physical processor. For example, the laptop used to write
this chapter on is a dual-core processor with hyperthreading, and the hyperthread ratio is 4. If my
laptop were a quad-core without hyperthreading, my hyperthread ratio would also be 4. Especially
with the new, core-based licensing in SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition, it is important to distinguish
between true physical cores and logical cores. Fortunately, the next two queries will help clear
up this confusion.
LISTING 15-4: Hardware information
-- Hardware information from SQL Server 2012 (new virtual_machine_type_desc)
-- (Cannot distinguish between HT and multi-core)
SELECT cpu_count AS [Logical CPU Count], hyperthread_ratio AS [Hyperthread
Ratio],cpu_count/hyperthread_ratio AS [Physical CPU Count],
physical_memory_kb/1024 AS [Physical Memory (MB)],
affinity_type_desc, virtual_machine_type_desc, sqlserver_start_time
FROM sys.dm_os_sys_info WITH (NOLOCK) OPTION (RECOMPILE);
-- Gives you some good basic hardware information about your database server