Configuring SQL Server

This section provides best practices for configuring your SQL Server databases to fine-tune performance, avoid common pitfalls, and meet your security and availability requirements. You can implement these changes before or after you migrate your databases to Amazon EC2. The following sections provide configuration tips and best practices.

Topics

• Configure tempdb to reduce contention

• Set MAXDOP for best performance

• Change the cost threshold of parallelism

• Optimize for ad hoc workloads

• Use trace flags to improve performance

• Install the latest patches

• Cap max server memory to avoid memory pressure

• Use the highest database compatibility level

• Control the number of VLFs

• Check database autogrowth settings