I am setting up a new server and there are some options. I want to perform some benchmarks and I need your help in determining the best tools and if possible run pre-configured benchmarks designed for SQL servers on Windows Server 2008/2012.

Step 1. Run a performance monitor on the current Live SQL server (Windows Server 2008 Virtual machine running on ESXi.

New server Hardware rundown:

1. Intel® Server System R1304BTLSHBN - 1U Rack, LGA1155 http://ark.intel.com/products/53559/Intel-Server-System-R1304BTLSHBN
2. Intel Xeon E3-1270V2
3. 2x Intel SSD 330 Series 240GB 2.5in SATA 6Gb/s 25nm
4. 1x WD 2TB WD2002FAEX 2TB 64M SATA3 CAVIAR BLACK
5. 4x 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC CL9 DIMM

There are several options for configurations and I want to benchmark some of them and share the results.

Option 1.

• Configure 2x SSDs at RAID 0.
• Install Windows Server 2008 directly to the 2TB WD Caviar HDD.
• Store Database files on the RAID 0 Volume.
• Benchmark the OS direct on the hardware as an SQL Server.
• Store SQL Backup databases on the 2TB WD Caviar HDD.

Option 2.

• Configure 2x SSDs at RAID 0.
• Install Windows Server 2012 directly to the 2TB WD Caviar HDD.
• Install Hyper-V.
• Install the SQL Server (Server 2008) as a virtual machine.
• Store the Virtual Hard Disks on the SSDs.

Option 3.

• Configure 2x SSDs at RAID 0.
• Install VMWare ESXi on a partition of the 2TB WD Caviar HDD.
• Install the SQL Server (Server 2008) as a virtual machine.
• Store the Virtual Hard Disks on the SSDs.

I have a few tools in mind from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc768530(v=bts.10).aspx. Any tools with pre-configured test would be fantastic. Specifically if there are pre-configured perfmon sets avaliable.

Any opinions on the setup to gain the best results is welcome. Thanks in advance.