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Database Performance and Sun Storage 7410 Unified Storage Array

Monday Nov 10, 2008

The Sun Storage 7410 Unified Storage Array can be used effectively by customers requiring NAS storage for their databases. A variety of performance measurements are presented from tests run in an Database environment.

I don't have complete details on this test, but it seems to have some interesting data. I'll add additional info as it comes. Early postings today, have more complete info on performance of the Sun Storage 7000 family.

Lightly-loaded write response times are 10x faster than traditional controller based storage with the fastest rotating media.
Read response times from ARC (0.3ms), L2ARC (3.0ms), rotating media (30ms)
Maximum throughput for database loads and data file creation over 1GbE NIC at 80 MB/sec
Maximum throughput for parallel table scans over 1GbE NIC at 110 MB/sec
Typical cache hit rates for OLTP systems running at 90% cache hits to database buffer cache.

ARC: 50% when ARC ~= 3x buffer cache
ARC: >80% when ARC ~= 16x buffer cache
L2ARC: 10-30% when L2ARC ~= 6x ARC

Typical characteristics for OLTP processing

Log file parallel write: 1-7ms response time over 10-100 database transactions per second and 1000-4000 IOPS
DB file sequential read: 1=1-ms response time over 10-100 database transactions per second and 1000-4000 IOPS with ARC ~= 16x buffer cache
DB file sequential read: 5-20ms response time over 10-100 database transactions per second and 1000-4000 IOPS with ARC ~= 3x buffer cache

Key Technical Points

The study showed hit rates during OLTP of the ARC and L2ARC cache based on ratios of cache sizes between the database buffer cache, the ARC cache, and the L2ARC cache. Basic I/O results (e.g., 100% random 75% read) in terms of I/O rate, queue depth, and response time, and showed database results in the language of STATSPACK/AWR wait events.

Benchmark Description

Single-client tests that can set expectations for data access time and data access rate to the SS7110, SS7210, and SS7410 platforms in the context of 5 typical operations: