Re: Which Protocol to use?

Mark Bole wrote:
> Ana C. Dent wrote:
>

>> Frank van Bortel <fvanbortel_at_netscape.net> wrote in
>> news:cfcq7f$isp$1_at_news3.tilbu1.nb.home.nl:
>>
>>> Syltrem wrote:
>>>
>>>> Both BEQ and TCP should give the same performance, but BEQ for
>>>> clients on the same machine as your db server may be a better choice.
>>>> BEQ is a "more direct" way to communicate. I don't know what
>>>> principle it uses on Unix (OpenVMS is my religion) but if you use TCP
>>>> you get in concurrence with all other TCP traffic. On heavily loaded
>>>> networks, this may impact your Oracle throughput.
>>>>
>>>> Here for local clients I use BEQ, for all others I use TCP.
>>>> I once had a performance problem (in the beginning) and had to set
>>>> TCP.NODELAY=TRUE in PROTOCOL.ORA, but after that I had the exact same
>>>> performance using either one.
>>
>>
>>
>> The ONLY difference between TCP & BEQ is that BEQ does NOT require a 
>> listener. Keep in mind the listener ONLY comes into play upon the initial
>> connection request. After the initial connection has been made the 
>> same code path is used by both protocols.

Did not know that - surely not true on 8i for AIX (the last version/platform I tested network performance on)
>
> The OP asked about performance, which could require some benchmark
> testing. What is the performance goal? Probably TCP/IP, even locally,
> could meet the goal on modern hardware, with the benefit of consistent
> service definitions across your organization.
>
> I saw one mention of IPC (interprocess communication) earlier in the
> thread. I have used IPC protocol with the listener for the remote end
> of a database link when the local database was on the same server.
> (Solaris and Linux, ver 8i onward).
>
> What is the difference (other than syntax) between BEQ and IPC? I've
> always wondered and found one proffered explanation:
>
> [untested] "IPC uses Unix Domain Sockets to communicate between the
> client-side and server-side processes, where BEQ uses Unix pipes".
>
> Another search, however, makes a different claim. Does it make sense to
> define a service using BEQ in the listener.ora file at any time? Does a
> local login to SQL*Plus or other client tools use the BEQ protocol by
> default if no connect string is specified and you are on the local
> machine? (example: nid target=sys/passwd dbname=nnn ... note no
> connect string is specified).
>
> --Mark Bole
>
>
>
>
>

I'd prefer BEQ or IPC for local connections; TCP for remote. As I haven't tested network performance for some time now, it's just an old habit - which maybe superseded/plain silly by now.
As I have some time to abide, I may do some tests, if I feel like it.

-- 

Regards,
Frank van Bortel