Re: Oracle on NT...Why Not?

In article <3146CE85.53DD_at_hydro.on.ca> Rob Allan <rob.e.allan_at_hydro.on.ca> wrote:

snip...
>>
>> Interesting artical in the March 26th issue of PC Mag. The artical about
>> departmental servers. PC Mag used two NOSs to perfom throughput tests.
>> Netware 3.12 and NT 3.51 (service pack 2). Amazing how file throughput on
>> Netware was double that of NT once you got above 28 clients. I suspect that
>> that difference might show up on running an RDBMS on the two platfforms.
>>
>> Granted Netware does not have sexy graphics, but it is efficient.
>> Would it be faster than the aformentioned high performance machines (T-500 or
>> a DEC Alpha); no way. My experience has been that running Oracle under
>> Netware vs NT on the same hardware is that Oracle under Netware will easily
>> outperform Oracle under NT.
>>
>> Jim Kennedy
 

> I understand that ORACLE under NT runs as a single process, with
> threading within the process. Does that allow you to take advantage of a
> multi-processor?
> 
> Any info would be appreciated as we are looking at ORACLE on NT for
> development work.
> -- 
> Rob Allan                       |  rob.e.allan_at_hydro.on.ca
> Ontario Hydro                   |  Tel. (416) 592 4195
> Toronto, Ontario, Canada        |  Fax  (416) 592 4966

Oracle7 under NT (I recommend 7.2) runs mostly as a single process with threading within the process. This is more efficient than multiple processes. Also, this does allow threads to run on different CPU's of a multi-CPU system. We are running several DEC Priorix HX DP590 (Dual Pentium-90) boxes. The performance on these is quite adequate for small applications such as 10-30 users or a small group of developers. You do notice a performance hit if somebody is running long-running SQL*Loader jobs on the machine. I believe that this is because SQL*Loader is still 16-bit. I haven't tried it yet, but we might be able to improve that SQL*Loader situation by setting the tasking to "equal" for "foreground-background" on the NT system.

I thought I would answer the Netware topic above. NTFS on NT uses a lazy-write with a log which is very similar in concept to Oracle's DBWR/LGWR and Redo Log. The NT log file can become a bottleneck once the number of users gets up above 30 or 40. The solution is the same solution as for Oracle. Get as many disks as you can and spread the I/O out as much as possible. I'm sure that there is a class of database profiles where Netware will outperform NT at this time. To me, that is no reason to use Netware. I have to hold my finger up and feel the way the wind is blowing. NT is stable and reasonable now. NT is backed by a company willing to spend a huge amount of money to make it the OS we all use. I am in an Advanced Technology group. I have to keep my mind and eyes open for other possibilities in the future. For now, NT seems to have a good foundation. The price/performance beats UNIX on the low end.

Your original question was about using NT/Oracle for development work. I believe that development is an excellent use for NT and a great way to learn about it. The company I work for is currently using NT as a development/test platform in several groups.

Mike Corum
Technical Consulting Team
COTE
Monsanto Co
(All Opinions My Own) Received on Wed Mar 13 1996 - 00:00:00 CET