Migrating Oracle 9iBased Sun Servers to
Dell Servers Running
Linux
Part 2: Dell PowerEdge 6650 with Red
Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1
Enterprise Systems Group (ESG)
Dell White Paper
By Todd Muirhead and Dave Jaffe
todd_muirhead@dell.com
dave_jaffe@dell.com
Updated August 2003
Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4
The Database Servers................................................................................................................... 5
The Hardware ......................................................................................................................... 5
The Database Software................................................................................................................ 7
Oracle9i .................................................................................................................................... 7
The Queries ............................................................................................................................. 8
Migrating the Database ........................................................................................................ 8
The Tests ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 10
Table 1: Database Server Comparison: PowerEdge 6650 vs. Sun FireV480 ..................... 5
Table 2: Oracle Parameters ........................................................................................................ 7
Table 3: Test Results ................................................................................................................... 9
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1
Section
Executive Summary
Oracle9i data mining performance was studied using the Dell PowerEdge™ 6650
with four 2.0 GHz Xeon™ MP processors, running Red Hat® Linux 2.1
Advanced Server, and the Sun FireTM V480 from Sun Microsystems, Inc. with
four 900 MHz UltraSPARC® III processors, running Solaris 9.0. A database of
baseball statistics was built on the Sun database server and easily migrated to the
Dell servers.
A set of eight intensive queries was developed and run against this database on
both servers. The Dell PowerEdge 6650 completed the eight queries in an average
time of 13.68 seconds, 89% faster than the Sun FireV480’s 25.85 seconds. The Dell
system tested is 27% less expensive than the Sun system, giving Dell a significant
overall price/performance advantage of 2.61X.1
Originally published in January 2003, this paper has been updated to reflect
current pricing (as of 7/1/03) of the two systems tested
1
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Section
2
Introduction
In a previous paper (Migrating Oracle9i - Based Sun Servers to Dell Servers
Running Linux Part 1, at
http://www.dell.com/us/en/esg/topics/products_oracle_papers_pedge_software_
oracle_papers.htm) we reported on a study showing that the Dell PowerEdge
6450 with four 700 MHz Xeon processors was 69% faster and 85% less expensive
than a comparably equipped Sun Enterprise 4500 machine with four 450 MHz
UltraSPARC II processors, running a moderately complex set of Oracle queries.
This study compared pure system performance for data mining on the Sun
system running Solaris 8.0 against Dell servers running Red Hat Linux
Advanced Server 2.1, by simultaneously running eight very intensive queries
against the same baseball database. The queries used Oracle analytical features to
answer questions such as “who had the best five straight years in home runs,
batting average, earned run average, etc.”
To compare the latest generation of processors on both platforms, we repeated
the test with Dell’s Xeon MP-based PowerEdge 6650 and Sun’s UltraSPARC IIIbased Sun FireV480. The Dell PowerEdge 6650 was configured with four 2.0 GHz
Intel Xeon MP processors and 8 GB of RAM. The V480 was configured with four
900 MHz UltraSPARC III processors and 8 GB of RAM. Oracle 9i Release 2
Enterprise Edition database was installed and configured with the same
parameters on both systems. The same set of eight queries was run against both
databases and completion time for each query measured. Pricing, including
three-year service contracts, was also compared to make a price/performance
calculation. The Dell PowerEdge 6650 completed the queries in almost half the
time it took the Sun server to complete the same queries and the Dell PowerEdge
sever cost $12,000 less. This resulted in a 2.61X price/performance advantage
over the Sun server.
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Section
3
The Database Servers
The Hardware
The Sun server was a Sun FireV480 running the December 2002 version of Solaris
9.0. The V480 used four 64-bit UltraSPARC-III 900 MHz CPUs. The Dell 4-CPU
PowerEdge 6650 ran Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 on four 2.0 GHz Intel®
Xeon processors based on the Intel 32-bit architecture. See Table 1 for details.
Dell PowerEdge 6650
Sun Sun Fire V480
Operating System
Red Hat Linux Advanced
Server 2.1
Solaris 9.0 12/02
CPU
4x 2.0 GHz Intel Xeon
4 x 900 MHz
UltraSPARC III
CPU L2 Cache
2 MB
8MB
Memory
8 GB
8 GB
Internal Disk
2x 36 GB
2x 36 GB
NICs
2x 10/100/1000* Mb/s
(both internal)
2x 10/100/1000 Mb/s
(both internal)
Disk Controller
PERC/3 Dual Channel
FC/AL Controller
Video
On-board
PGX64 PCI Card,
Remote Console
Height
4 Rack Units (4U) or
7-inches
5 Rack Units (5U) or 8.75inches
Price as configured
With 3-Year Gold
Support
$32,419
Source
http://www.dell.com
7/1/03
$44,646
http://www.sun.com
7/1/03
* This term indicates compliance with IEEE standard 802.3ab for Gigabit Ethernet, and does not connote
actual operating speed of 1 Gb/sec. For high speed transmission, connection to a Gigabit Ethernet server
and network infrastructure is required.
Table 1: Database Server Comparison: PowerEdge 6650 vs. Sun Fire V480
Since this was primarily a CPU horsepower test, the Sun and the Dell database
servers were configured with only internal storage. The Sun server uses two
fibre channel arbitrated loop drives attached to the onboard fibre channel
controller. The Dell PowerEdge 6650 used two Ultra 160 SCSI drives attached to
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a Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller/3 (PERC/3) PCI card. Both of the systems
used two 36 GB1 10,000 RPM drives. The drives were configured as single
drives. No RAID level was used. Due to the small size of the database used in
the testing, the disk configuration was not a factor in the testing. The amount of
memory assigned to the Oracle SGA is large enough that most of the test is run
from memory and disk I/O is very low.
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Section
4
The Database Software
Oracle9i
Oracle9i Release 2 Database was installed using the Oracle Universal Installer on
both Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 and Solaris 9. The same options were
selected on both. Oracle9i installation was completed without creating an initial
database. The Oracle Database Creation Assistant (DBCA) was then used to
create a new database instance using the same settings on the two platforms.
The control files, log files, and data files were placed on different mount points
on the internal disks and the dedicated server option was used. Version 9.2.0.1
of Oracle 9i was used on both servers.
The database initialization parameters are listed in Table 2. The Sun V480 and
the PowerEdge 6650 were set up the same way to facilitate comparison. These
parameters were used to maximize the performance of Oracle by ensuring that
plenty of memory would be available. The major difference between this paper
and the previous paper is that dedicated server mode was used. This results in a
smaller number of parameter changes from the default settings.
Parameter
Dell
PowerEdge
Sun Sun
Fire
6650
V480
DB_BLOCK_SIZE
8192
8192
DB_CACHE_SIZE
141557760
141557760
LARGE_POOL_SIZE
419430400
419430400
OPEN_CURSORS
300
300
PROCESSES
150
150
SHARED_POOL_SIZE
419430400
419430400
SORT_AREA_SIZE
67108864
67108864
Table 2: Oracle Parameters
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The Queries
A set of eight data mining queries was written using Oracle’s SQL for Analysis
functions. The queries are representative of fairly CPU-intensive queries that
baseball analysts would typically make. The database schema and queries is
fully documented in the previous paper.
Migrating the Database
Migrating the baseball statistics database from the Sun database server to the two
Dell servers was easily accomplished using Oracle’s export and import
commands. Full details are given in the previous paper.
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Section
5
The Tests
The workload consisted of simultaneously running the eight queries and
measuring the elapsed time with the Oracle timing function. Simultaneous
execution was achieved by starting each query in background mode in a simple
shell script using the SQLPLUS command. The scripts were run directly on the
database servers. Three runs were performed on each system, with the results
averaged.
The results are shown in Table 3:
System
Average
Query Time
(sec)
Performance:
Dell
Advantage
Price as
Configured
(see Table 1)
Price:
Dell
Advantage
Price/|
Performance:
Dell
Advantage
Sun FireV480
with 4
Processors
25.85
1
$44,646
1
1
Dell PowerEdge
6650 with 4
Processors
13.68
1.89X
$32,419
1.38X
2.61X
Table 3: Test Results
The Dell PowerEdge 6650 completed the eight queries in an average time of 13.68
seconds, 89% faster than the Sun FireV480’s 25.85 seconds. The Dell system
tested was 27% less expensive than the Sun, giving Dell an overall
price/performance advantage of 2.61X.
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Section
6
Conclusions
Running the same queries against a migrated Oracle database, a Dell PowerEdge
6650 equipped with four state-of-the-art Intel processors outran a much more
expensive system from Sun Microsystems, Inc., running state-of-the-art SPARC
processors. The over 2X better price/performance of the Dell system illustrates
the power of Industry Standard Architecture servers running on Red Hat Linux
when compared to servers with proprietary processor architectures and
operating systems.
THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL
ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.
Dell and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark and Oracle9i is a
trademark of Oracle Corporation. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Red Hat is
a registered trademark of Red Hat Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and
names or their products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
©Copyright 2003 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the
express written permission of Dell Computer Corporation is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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