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Looking at a post from the MSDN team, I've come up with a way to reliably get the physical core count from a machine, and use that to determine a good MAXDOP setting.

Looking at a post from the MSDN team, I've come up with a way to reliably get the physical core count from a machine, and use that to determine a good MAXDOP setting.

PowerShell is used to determine the physical core count:

SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP2 and above, and all versions of SQL Server 2017 and above surface details about the physical core count per socket, the socket count, and the number of NUMA nodes, allowing a tidy way to determine the baseline MAXDOP setting for a new SQL Server installation.

For the versions mentioned above, this code will recommend a conservative MAXDOP setting of 75% of the number of physical cores in a NUMA node:

DECLARE @socket_count int;
DECLARE @cores_per_socket int;
DECLARE @numa_node_count int;
DECLARE @memory_model nvarchar(120);
DECLARE @hyperthread_ratio int;

SELECT @socket_count = dosi.socket_count
       , @cores_per_socket = dosi.cores_per_socket
       , @numa_node_count = dosi.numa_node_count
       , @memory_model = dosi.sql_memory_model_desc
       , @hyperthread_ratio = dosi.hyperthread_ratio
FROM sys.dm_os_sys_info dosi;

SELECT [Socket Count] = @socket_count
       , [Cores Per Socket] = @cores_per_socket
       , [Number of NUMA nodes] = @numa_node_count
       , [Hyperthreading Enabled] = CASE WHEN @hyperthread_ratio > @cores_per_socket THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
       , [Lock Pages in Memory granted?] = CASE WHEN @memory_model = N'CONVENTIONAL' THEN 0 ELSE 1 END;

DECLARE @MAXDOP int = @cores_per_socket;
SET @MAXDOP = @MAXDOP * 0.75;
IF @MAXDOP >= 8 SET @MAXDOP = 8;

SELECT [Recommended MAXDOP setting] = @MAXDOP
       , [Command] = 'EXEC sys.sp_configure N''max degree of parallelism'', ' + CONVERT(nvarchar(10), @MAXDOP) + ';RECONFIGURE;';

For versions of SQL Server prior to SQL Server 2017 or SQL Server 2016 SP2, you cannot obtain the core-count-per-numa-node from sys.dm_os_sys_info. Instead, we can use PowerShell to determine the physical core count:

powershell -OutputFormat Text -NoLogo -Command "& {Get-WmiObject -namespace 
"root\CIMV2" -class Win32_Processor -Property NumberOfCores} 
| select NumberOfLogicalProcessors"
 
/* 
   This will recommend a MAXDOP setting appropriate for your machine's NUMA memory
   configuration.  You will need to evaluate this setting in a non-production 
   environment before moving it to production.

   MAXDOP can be configured using:  
   EXEC sp_configure 'max degree of parallelism',X;
   RECONFIGURE

   If this instance is hosting a Sharepoint database, you MUST specify MAXDOP=1 
   (URL wrapped for readability)
   http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rcormier/archive/2012/10/25/
   you-shall-configure-your-maxdop-when-using-sharepoint-2013.aspx

   Biztalk (all versions, including 2010): 
   MAXDOP = 1 is only required on the BizTalk Message Box
   database server(s), and must not be changed; all other servers hosting other 
   BizTalk Server databases may return this value to 0 if set.
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899000
*/
SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE @CoreCount int;
SET @CoreCount = 0;
DECLARE @NumaNodes int;

/*  see if xp_cmdshell is enabled, so we can try to use 
    PowerShell to determine the real core count
*/
DECLARE @T TABLE (
    name varchar(255)
    , minimum int
    , maximum int
    , config_value int
    , run_value int
);
INSERT INTO @T 
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell';
DECLARE @cmdshellEnabled BIT;
SET @cmdshellEnabled = 0;
SELECT @cmdshellEnabled = 1 
FROM @T
WHERE run_value = 1;
IF @cmdshellEnabled = 1
BEGIN
    CREATE TABLE #cmdshell
    (
        txt VARCHAR(255)
    );
    INSERT INTO #cmdshell (txt)
    EXEC xp_cmdshell 'powershell -OutputFormat Text -NoLogo -Command "& {Get-WmiObject -namespace "root\CIMV2" -class Win32_Processor -Property NumberOfCores} | select NumberOfCores"';
    SELECT @CoreCount = CONVERT(INT, LTRIM(RTRIM(txt)))
    FROM #cmdshell
    WHERE ISNUMERIC(LTRIM(RTRIM(txt)))=1;
    DROP TABLE #cmdshell;
END
IF @CoreCount = 0 
BEGIN
    /* 
        Could not use PowerShell to get the corecount, use SQL Server's 
        unreliable number.  For machines with hyperthreading enabled
        this number is (typically) twice the physical core count.
    */
    SET @CoreCount = (SELECT i.cpu_count from sys.dm_os_sys_info i); 
END

SET @NumaNodes = (
    SELECT MAX(c.memory_node_id) + 1 
    FROM sys.dm_os_memory_clerks c 
    WHERE memory_node_id < 64
    );

IF @CoreCount > 4 /* If less than 5 cores, don't bother. */
BEGIN
    DECLARE @MaxDOP int;

    /* 3/4 of Total Cores in Machine */
    SET @MaxDOP = @CoreCount * 0.75; 

    /* if @MaxDOP is greater than the per NUMA node
       Core Count, set @MaxDOP = per NUMA node core count
    */
    IF @MaxDOP > (@CoreCount / @NumaNodes) 
        SET @MaxDOP = (@CoreCount / @NumaNodes) * 0.75;

    /*
        Reduce @MaxDOP to an even number 
    */
    SET @MaxDOP = @MaxDOP - (@MaxDOP % 2);

    /* Cap MAXDOP at 8, according to Microsoft */
    IF @MaxDOP > 8 SET @MaxDOP = 8;

    PRINT 'Suggested MAXDOP = ' + CAST(@MaxDOP as varchar(max));
END
ELSE
BEGIN
    PRINT 'Suggested MAXDOP = 0 since you have less than 5 cores total.';
    PRINT 'This is the default setting, you likely do not need to do';
    PRINT 'anything.';
END

powershell -OutputFormat Text -NoLogo -Command "& {Get-WmiObject -namespace 
"root\CIMV2" -class Win32_Processor -Property NumberOfCores} 
| select NumberOfLogicalProcessors"

The T-SQL:

/* 
   This will recommend a MAXDOP setting appropriate for your machine's NUMA memory
   configuration.  You will need to evaluate this setting in a non-production 
   environment before moving it to production.

   MAXDOP can be configured using:  
   EXEC sp_configure 'max degree of parallelism',X;
   RECONFIGURE

   If this instance is hosting a Sharepoint database, you MUST specify MAXDOP=1 
   (URL wrapped for readability)
   http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rcormier/archive/2012/10/25/
   you-shall-configure-your-maxdop-when-using-sharepoint-2013.aspx

   Biztalk (all versions, including 2010): 
   MAXDOP = 1 is only required on the BizTalk Message Box
   database server(s), and must not be changed; all other servers hosting other 
   BizTalk Server databases may return this value to 0 if set.
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899000
*/
SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE @CoreCount int;
SET @CoreCount = 0;
DECLARE @NumaNodes int;

/*  see if xp_cmdshell is enabled, so we can try to use 
    PowerShell to determine the real core count
*/
DECLARE @T TABLE (
    name varchar(255)
    , minimum int
    , maximum int
    , config_value int
    , run_value int
);
INSERT INTO @T 
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell';
DECLARE @cmdshellEnabled BIT;
SET @cmdshellEnabled = 0;
SELECT @cmdshellEnabled = 1 
FROM @T
WHERE run_value = 1;
IF @cmdshellEnabled = 1
BEGIN
    CREATE TABLE #cmdshell
    (
        txt VARCHAR(255)
    );
    INSERT INTO #cmdshell (txt)
    EXEC xp_cmdshell 'powershell -OutputFormat Text -NoLogo -Command "& {Get-WmiObject -namespace "root\CIMV2" -class Win32_Processor -Property NumberOfCores} | select NumberOfCores"';
    SELECT @CoreCount = CONVERT(INT, LTRIM(RTRIM(txt)))
    FROM #cmdshell
    WHERE ISNUMERIC(LTRIM(RTRIM(txt)))=1;
    DROP TABLE #cmdshell;
END
IF @CoreCount = 0 
BEGIN
    /* 
        Could not use PowerShell to get the corecount, use SQL Server's 
        unreliable number.  For machines with hyperthreading enabled
        this number is (typically) twice the physical core count.
    */
    SET @CoreCount = (SELECT i.cpu_count from sys.dm_os_sys_info i); 
END

SET @NumaNodes = (
    SELECT MAX(c.memory_node_id) + 1 
    FROM sys.dm_os_memory_clerks c 
    WHERE memory_node_id < 64
    );

DECLARE @MaxDOP int;

/* 3/4 of Total Cores in Machine */
SET @MaxDOP = @CoreCount * 0.75; 

/* if @MaxDOP is greater than the per NUMA node
    Core Count, set @MaxDOP = per NUMA node core count
*/
IF @MaxDOP > (@CoreCount / @NumaNodes) 
    SET @MaxDOP = (@CoreCount / @NumaNodes) * 0.75;

/*
    Reduce @MaxDOP to an even number 
*/
SET @MaxDOP = @MaxDOP - (@MaxDOP % 2);

/* Cap MAXDOP at 8, according to Microsoft */
IF @MaxDOP > 8 SET @MaxDOP = 8;

PRINT 'Suggested MAXDOP = ' + CAST(@MaxDOP as varchar(max));