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Relational database products can eat your network alive. Keep the piranhas away with these tips.
The development team throws a party when it delivers a new databaseoriented application to the business community. But the network exec, like Cinderella, can't go to the party.
All too often, the network team didn't get to help select the relational database, didn't get straight answers from the development team on network traffic requirements and doesn't have the right tools to show management and the development team the application's effect on network resources. Nonetheless, it's your team that is responsible for the reliability, connectivity and overall responsiveness of the application.
The most likely problem you'll face, unfortunately is sluggish performance. A relational database's behavior and performance depend on a number of factors, including the server and network environment, tuning parameters, application design and "user load:'
Moreover, most database products run on a range of operating systems and types of computers.These factors and the platform choices are so complex and interrelated that dealing with them comprehensively requires extensive expertise. In their license agreements, Oracle and Microsoft recognize this problem by prohibiting customers from discussing or revealing database benchmark results.
Mindful of these licensing terms, but curious about the many factors influencing database performance, we investigated how four popular relational databases Oracle 9i, Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) 12.5, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and IBM DB2 Universal Database 7.2 - can cause performance problems on your network.We ran each on a Compaq ML570 ProLiant four-way server with Windows 2000 Advanced Server installed.
From a network perspective, database performance problems fall into four general categories: The database software can monopolize a server's CPU,spend excessive time performing disk or memory accesses, overburden the server's network adapters) or emit considerably more network traffic than expected.
Start with proper configuration
The network team needs to keep an eye on how the database administrator (DBA) configures the database software, especially for initial use with a new application.A DBA who follows the tuning guidelines each vendor provides easily can create a database server that overwhelms network resources or bogs down the server.
Via the setting or modifying of parameters that throttle the number and the running characteristics of server processes, all four products give the DBA almost...