SQL SERVER · 2017–2022 · INSTANCE CONFIGURATION

Parallelism with purpose.
Start with your topology.

Calculate a MAXDOP starting point from the processors SQL Server can actually use.

CPU & NUMA profile

01 / INPUTS

◇ Calculations stay in your browser.

Find your SQL-visible topology

Run this read-only query on the intended instance. Each row is an online node; the processor count comes from its visible online schedulers.

SELECT n.node_id, COUNT(*) AS online_logical_processors
FROM sys.dm_os_nodes AS n
JOIN sys.dm_os_schedulers AS s
  ON s.parent_node_id = n.node_id
WHERE n.node_state_desc LIKE 'ONLINE%'
  AND n.node_state_desc NOT LIKE '%DAC%'
  AND s.status = 'VISIBLE ONLINE'
GROUP BY n.node_id
ORDER BY n.node_id;

Requires VIEW SERVER STATE on 2017/2019, or VIEW SERVER PERFORMANCE STATE on 2022. Add the row counts for total processors and count the returned rows for nodes.

Parallelism plan

02 / RESULTS

TOPOLOGY STARTING POINT · TEST YOUR WORKLOAD

Suggested instance MAXDOP

8MAXDOP

Generated T-SQL

Review and run on the intended instance. Requires ALTER SETTINGS. Takes effect without a restart; this tool never connects to your server.

UNDERSTAND THE RESULT

NUMA matters.
Core count isn't enough.

The calculator selects the upper starting point from Microsoft's topology guidance. A lower value may suit your workload; this is not a performance assessment.

Rules for SQL Server 2016 and later

SQL-visible topology	Starting point
One node, up to 8 logical processors	Processor count
One node, more than 8	8
Multiple nodes, up to 16 processors per node	Processors per node
Multiple nodes, more than 16 per node	Half per node, at most 16

For odd processor counts the tool rounds half down. For unequal nodes, it uses the smallest node conservatively; Microsoft’s table does not specify this extension.

What the setting means

MAXDOP limits parallelism per task. It is not a limit on the total workers a query can consume. A value of 1 suppresses parallel plans; 0 permits all available processors up to SQL Server's documented limit of 64.

Validate before and after

Check SQL-visible nodes, CPU affinity and VM topology first. Test representative concurrency, CPU usage, worker pressure, query duration and waits. Database-scoped MAXDOP, query hints, Resource Governor and index-operation options can affect the effective value. This tool does not change cost threshold for parallelism or account for every edition-specific operation limit.

Microsoft: MAXDOP configuration and recommendations

Scope: SQL Server 2017–2022 instances, not Azure SQL services or a workload-specific tuning prescription. Guidance checked October 5, 2026.

Parallelism with purpose.Start with your topology.