Oracle Database Tips by Donald Burleson

Test Architecture, overall disk specifications

SPECVALUESpeed7200 RPMCapacity250GBInterfaceSATA or PATAMax sustained data transfer rateup to 59MB/sec (59 1 meg IO/sec)Average seek time (latency)9.0 msMax burst transfer speeds up to 150MB/secCache buffer8MBTable 4.1: MaxLine Plus II Disk Specifications

SPECVALUEFibre Channels: 4Gb2 to 8 PortsI/Os per second400,000Power Supplies3 RedundantBandwidth3 GB/secBackup Disk DrivesRedundant Hot-SwapCapacity32-128 GB per UnitLatency<14 microsecondsBatteriesRedundant Hot-SwapSize 5.25" (3U) x 25"Weight (maximum)80 lbsPower Consumption (peak)350 WattsTable 4.2: RamSan400 Specifications

The database schema (Appendix A) was loaded using the Benchmark Factory tool from Quest software. A 16 warehouse configuration, that was approximately 2.4 gigabytes with indexes, required about 6 hours to build. The schema was then exported and subsequent reloads were performed using the export. The Benchmark Factory was also utilized to perform the TPC-C transaction runs and load generations from 10 to 600 users. The default weighting for transactions, which matches that specified in the TPC-C benchmark specification, was utilized. Figure 4.2 shows the main screen from the Benchmark Factory Application.

The use of the Benchmark Factory tool allowed multiple runs of the benchmark without having to perform programming. Essentially the steps performed were:

1. Set up the number of warehouses required. This is determined empirically to achieve the proper database size.
2. Build the database schema and load data
3. Export the database to use for reloading. The build part of the tool requires several hours to build a database so this step is critical.
4. Run the benchmarks
5. Drop and Reload the database.

The above book excerpt is from:

Oracle RAC & Grid Tuning with Solid State Disk
Expert Secrets for High Performance Clustered Grid Computing

ISBN: 0-9761573-5-7
Mike Ault, Donald K. Burleson

http://www.rampant-books.com/book_2005_2_rac_ssd_tuning.htm