Oracle / NFS performance test

[Dieter Degrendele_2]

Hi,

I would like to do a performance test to see where performs better, a oracle with DB files on a directly attached storage or with DB files on a NAS (using NFS).

Does somebody know where to find a kind of howto document that explains what and how to do a good performance test?

Thank you

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Why even bother to add Oracle to the test? The database is just noise to the experiment.
I would simply do a test writing to a local file and then to an NFS file.

timex dd if=/dev/zero bs=64k count=10000 of=/xxx/local/myfile

timex dd if=/dev/zero bs=64k count=10000 of=/xxx/remote/myfile

Unless you have incredibly slow local disks and incredibly fast network/fileserver, you are going to find that local disks win hands down.

[Steven E. Protter]

Oracle totally does not support running its database on NFS.

That being said, its possible.

Advice:

1) if possible use vlan/subnetting to make sure the collision domain between the nfs server and clients is very small. small means less machines have access. A common problem that kills nfs access is congestion from windows workstations and such. Avoid it.

2) Use Gigabit Networking and switches to speed the data transfer and give oracle a chance. What was impossibly slow at 100 BaseT speeds becomes possible at Gigabit speeds.

SEP

[TwoProc]

I did it years and years ago to stand up a temporary test system. I wouldn't consider it for a production database doing any real work. If the purpose of the test is to tell which is faster - the direct I/O one is . Not much argument there. Question: do you *have* to use NFS on a NAS drive? I don't have any drives of that type to confirm, but I wasn't under the impression that it was necessary. OK, but if you're going to do it anyway, make sure to increase the db_buffer_cache to as big a number as you can handle to reduce the amount of I/O on the NFS drives. Like others mentioned - Oracle does not support this, and if you ever have problems, you're not going to get backing on it.

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
Don't know which NAS server you use but, this link may be of interest:

http://www.netapp.com/partners/oracle/

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

Also, past references will tell you that you cannot run oracle on NAS, this might not be really totally true TODAY!

this document says NO: http://www.mti.com/white_papers/WP20004.PDF

I would only go for NAS that are certified NAS that are certified vendors.

For testing again, you can do it using Oracle tools like Statspack and many others.

regards
yogeeraj

[Dieter Degrendele_2]

Thank you for your responses.
Indeed we are thinking about using a netapp NAS device. We heared that they claim that putting the db files on their NAS could increase performance with factor 2 (compared to gigabit FC). Just testing with dd is not sufficient I guess...

At the other hand, I am quite sure that DB files on NFS is supported by Oracle, because they are doing it themselves.

What I meant with my thread is that I would like to know with which parameter we should play (e.g. db_buffer_cache, packet size (on network), ....) and if there is a document that explains what to test and why.

Thanks,
Dieter Degrendele

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

Hi,

like the others I would not recommend DB files (for any kind of database) on NFS based system.

Anyway, if you want more information on NFS performance, check this link :
http://h21007.www2.hp.com/dspp/files/unprotected/devresource/Docs/Presentations/NFSperf.pdf

Regards
Jean-Luc

[harry d brown jr]

Can you point us to the documentation that CLAIMS this statement:

""""We heared that they claim that putting the db files on their NAS could increase performance with factor 2 (compared to gigabit FC). """"

??

The SECURITY risks alone are not worth it!

live free or die
harry d brown jr

[Fred Ruffet]

I wouldn't go for NFS. I will also like to see a doc saying a NFS can be that fast...

In a recent doc, I found that Oracle supports NFS for certified Storage Partners. But in the same document, they say : "The main problem with NFS is that the protocol is not reliable"...

Regards,

Fred