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How Fast Will It Go? Progress OpenEdge Database Performance on Intel Unix & Linux

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Measuring Ideal Read Performance

Many real world performance problems are related to how fast records can be read from the database -- not how fast you can write them. After all the read:write ratio for most applications is hundreds to one -- read performance is far more likely to be an issue than write performance!

An interesting question, therefore, is "how many records can my machine read per second?" The ultimate answer depends on a great many factors such as the amount of memory, the capabilities of the disk subsystem, the number of CPUs, their speed, type and configuration and the "other" workload on the machine. Many of these factors are highly variable and difficult to predict or simulate.

It is, however, possible to determine what the upper limit for a given box is under ideal circumstances. The readprobe.p tool is designed to determine what this limit is. The probe loads the entire sports database into memory and deliberately does no IO (Remember these are ideal conditions. You'll never go this fast in real life but you should be able to come very close.)

The data is also useful for determining how well tuned your system is -- if you are achieving results that are close to these ideal numbers then you're out of tuning options. You need faster CPUs to go any faster. But if you are not getting results that are close to these numbers you have room to improve through other changes.

The following table summarizes results from running readprobe.p on a number of Intel Unix based systems with different characteristics:

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Intel UNIX & Linux ReadProbe Performance Table

CPU Type
# x Speed 		OS Progress -spin Single User Best Users Records/sec Chart Note
Intel-Unix
Dell P4 Xeon
2 x 2,400 		RH ES 2.1 8.3E 10,000 154,034 2 191,013 Missing 0135

with hyper-threading

P4 Xeon
4 x 2,000 		RH AS 2.1 91.D07 10,000 70,220 8 176,908 Missing 0145

Dell P4 Xeon w/HT
4 x 2,000 		RH ES2 10.0B1P 10,000 69,457 8 168,433 Missing 0196

2.4.9-e.3smp

Dell P4 Xeon w/HT
4 x 2,000 		Red Hat ES2 10.0B1P 10,000 69,022 8 167,094 Missing 0197

2.4.9-e.3smp

P4 Xeon
4 x 2,000 		RH AS 2.1 10.0A 10,000 72,094 8 167,017 Missing 0156

VST Bug -- 10.0a numbers are estimates

P4 Xeon
4 x 2,000 		RH AS 2.1 9.1D07 10,000 75,496 4 164,126 Missing 0143

P4 Xeon
4 x 2,000 		RH AS 2.1 9.1D 10,000 55,432 8 155,224 Missing 0154

Vanilla 9.1d

P4 Xeon
4 x 2,000 		RH AS 2.1 8.3E 10,000 128,442 3 153,013 Missing 0144

P4 Xeon
4 x 2,000 		RH AS 2.1 8.3E 10,000 128,840 3 151,119 Missing 0146

P4 Xeon
4 x 1,600 		RH 8.0 9.1D07 10,000 57,852 8 149,302 Missing 0129

With hyper-threading

P4 Xeon
4 x 1,600 		RH 8.0 9.1C12 10,000 52,967 8 146,180 Missing 0131

With hyper-threading

P4 Xeon
4 x 1,600 		Linux 9.1D05 10,000 49,815 8 142,107 Missing 0147

9.1d05

P4 Xeon
4 x 1,600 		RH 8.0 9.1D06 10,000 49,694 14 140,095 Missing 0128

With hyper-threading

P4 Xeon
2 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1A05 10,000 63,433 45 107,629 Missing 0122

SMP Kernel, Hyperthreading enabled

P4 Xeon
4 x 1,600 		RH 8.0 10.0A1B 10,000 46,798 7 106,789 Missing 0130

With hyper-threading
Test was aborted due to wacky results as moresessions were added. (System "froze" somewhere after the 8th session started.)

Pentium Pro
2 x 1,200 		Linux 8.3E 10,000 73,015 2 100,983 Missing 0138

P4 Xeon
2 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1A05 10,000 64,204 50 97,550 Missing 0120

SMP Kernel, Hyperthreading disabled

P4 Xeon
2 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1D 10,000 53,850 44 96,358 Missing 0124

SMP kernel, Hyperthreading enabled.

P4 Xeon
2 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1D 10,000 39,662 47 95,217 Missing 0125

SMP kernel, Hyperthreading enabled, SETI@home is running

P4 Xeon
2 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1D 10,000 55,187 36 88,849 Missing 0123

SMP Kernel -- Hyperthreading disabled.

Pentium Pro
2 x 1,200 		Linux 9.1D 10,000 49,487 2 77,876 Missing 0139

Athlon
2 x 1,666 		Mandrake 9.0 9.1D 90,000 63,935 2 70,910 Missing 0113

Athlon
2 x 1,500 		RH 7.2 9.1A05 10,000 60,443 2 69,259 Missing 0036

Athlon
2 x 1,500 		RH 7.2 9.1A05 10,000 61,562 2 65,053 Missing 0097

P4
1 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1D 1 57,294 1 57,294 Missing 0121

Ordinary P4 -- no Xeon, no Hyperthreading

PIII
2 x 1,400 		RH 7 9.1C 10,000 36,471 16 56,709 Missing 0077

Unknown chip -- p3? (from file name...)

Aviion 25000 P3
4 x 550 		DG/UX (svr4.2) 8.2C 20,000 23,409 11 55,261 Missing 0116

P4 Xeon
1 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1D 10,000 54,797 2 55,234 Missing 0127

Uni-processor kernel, 1cpu, Hyperthreading enabled

P4 Xeon
1 x 2,000 		RH8 9.1D 1 54,643 1 54,643 Missing 0126

Uni-processor kernel. Hyperthreading enabled.

Dell 4500 P4
1 x 1,800 		RH 8 10.0A1B 1 44,706 12 50,247 Missing 0133

Aborted at 13 users

Athlon
1 x 1,200 		RH 7.2 9.1A05 1 45,633 1 45,633 Missing 0103

-spin 1

Athlon
1 x 1,200 		RH 7 9.1A05 10,000 44,202 1 44,202 Missing 0037

1 CPU and -spin 10,000???

P4
1 x 1,700 		RH 9.1D 0 38,492 13 39,277 Missing 0119

RHL 7.3?

PIII Xeon
2 x 500 		SCO OS 5.05 8.3B 10,000 22,759 4 36,035 Missing 0108

Same machine as 1 CPU version -- this one with both CPUs enabled

PII Xeon
4 x 400 		Unixware 7.1.1 9.1C 10,000 11,255 20 33,188 Missing 0073

Athlon
1 x 850 		Linux 9.1D 10,000 29,251 1 29,251 Missing 0148

Aviion 20000 P3
4 x 200 		DG/UX (svr4.2) 8.2C 20,000 9,375 13 25,419 Missing 0111

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 1 25,197 1 25,197 Missing 0189

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 0 24,974 30 25,032 Missing 0190

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 1 24,371 6 24,648 Missing 0188

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 1 23,510 6 24,428 Missing 0181

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 0 24,417 1 24,417 Missing 0172

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 0 22,911 12 24,367 Missing 0182

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 0 23,940 4 24,319 Missing 0175

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 0 24,306 1 24,306 Missing 0171

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 1 23,427 10 24,119 Missing 0173

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 1 23,403 12 24,044 Missing 0176

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 0 23,838 14 23,969 Missing 0177

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

Celeron
1 x 800 		White Box Linux 10.0A01 0 23,342 14 23,793 Missing 0180

Linux Aurvandil 2.4.21-4.EL White Box Linux ES 3.0

P4 Xeon
2 x 400 		Unixware 7.1.1 9.1C 10,000 14,485 19 23,667 Missing 0114

PIII Xeon
1 x 500 		SCO OS 5.05 8.3B 10,000 22,689 1 22,689 Missing 0109

Same as 2 CPU machine -- running with 1 disabled

Pentium II
2 x 400 		RH 7.3 9.1A05 10,000 0 12 19,647 Missing 0110

2.4.18-3smp

Celeron
1 x 800 		RH 7.3 9.1D 1 17,497 4 17,904 Missing 0083

Pentium II
1 x 400 		SCO OS5.05 8.3B WG 0 13,991 1 13,991 Missing 0035

Compaq ProLiant 800

Sequent 486
8 x 100 		Dynix 8.3A 10,000 3,775 7 10,442 Missing 0112

Pentium II
12 x 180 		Dynix v4.4.2 8.3A 2,000 8,203 1 8,203 Missing 0047

Sequent

Pentium II
1 x 266 		RH 7.1 9.1A05 1 6,378 40 7,629 Missing 0079

Pentium Pro
1 x 200 		RH 7.2 9.1A05 1 6,767 2 6,770 Missing 0098

RHL 2.4.18

Pentium Pro
1 x 200 		RH 7.1 9.1A05 10,000 6,642 1 6,642 Missing 0040

1 CPU and -spin 10,000???

Pentium MMX
1 x 233 		RH 7.1 9.1A05 10,000 5,107 2 5,121 Missing 0039

1 CPU and -spin 10,000???

AMD K6
1 x 300 		RH 7.1 9.1A05 1 2,731 21 3,075 Missing 0046

What Readprobe is NOT

Readprobe doesn't tell you everything about a machine. It shows one very specific metric -- how many records can be read under ideal circumstances. This happens to be a very useful thing to know. But it is not everything that you need to know nor can you make an informed decision based solely on that result. If you would like help applying these lessons to your situation contact Greenfield Technologies today to schedule an appointment!