Buck Woody had a great best practices post on his blog recently, Use the Best Drivers, and I completely agree. You don't necessarily pick the latest drivers since they might have problems, but instead pick the best ones. The best ones being the ones that work the best for you.

But what's the best? The most efficient? The highest performing by some measure? The most stable? As with almost any SQL Server question, or even any question in other areas, the answer is "it depends."

The best choice isn't necessarily the most expensive (though it may be). It isn't the biggest choice (though it can be). It isn't the most fill-in-the-blank, as a default choice. It's what works the best in that environment, that situation, with that budget.

And that means testing a few solutions. Too often I see people wanting someone to just tell them what to do, what system to pick, what configuration to set. They assume there's a magic formula for any aspect of SQL Server that they don't understand. If there is an issue, there's one way that will solve the problem for them, and they ask an expert to give it to them.

However experts don't do that. They evaluate a system, they use virtual machines heavily, they constantly look at how different situations affect their system.  They realize that there is no easy answer to the question of what is best for their environments.

When you realize that, and start testing different configurations yourself, you'll be a long way down the path of becoming an expert yourself.

Steve Jones

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