Scaling Microsoft SQL Server beyond 64 Hardware Threads on Window Server 2008 R2: Challenges, Scalability Numbers, and Best Practices

SQL Server code name "Kilimanjaro" release introduces support for greater than 64 hardware threads going up to 256 on Windows Server 2008 R2. We discuss our motivation to scale beyond 64 hardware threads and methodology to validate performance and scalability of SQL Server. We provide details on SQL scalability numbers and hardware platforms it ran on. We give insights into architectural learning and innovations that allowed SQL Server/Windows to scale beyond 64 hardware threads and talk about the SQL Server best practices/recommendations for the upcoming "Kilimanjaro" release.