Overview

This report describes the certification of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise version 15.7 (hereafter called “ASE”) with Violin Flash memory-based storage arrays. The Flash arrays were utilized for all the database devices.

Violin Flash Memory Arrays are specifically designed for extremely high, sustained performance with reliability and serviceability. Violin’s flash-based appliances scale to hundreds of terabytes of capacity, millions of I/O’s per second, and gigabytes per second of bandwidth. They are orders of magnitude faster than disk-based arrays. Violin 6000 Series arrays bring storage performance in balance with high-speed computing and networking and offer a significant opportunity for infrastructure consolidation. Flash memory technology is increasingly being utilized in today’s mission-critical and high-performance enterprise systems

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Environment and Configuration

This section describes the environment utilized for the certification. Although this certification was done on Linux running on Intel CPUs, any hardware/software combination, which is supported by both ASE and Violin, is certified.

Test Layout

Fiber-Channel Connectivity Layout

Violin 6616 Memory Array

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Installation and Configuration

ASE Installation:

Server Machine:
- Dell R910
- CPU - 32 cores – Intel ® Xeon® X7560 @ 2.27GHz
- 128 GB Memory
- Operating System - RHEL 6.2; Linux Kernel 2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP x86_64
ASE Configured
- 12 Engines
- 12 GB Memory
- Each test was independently run with 4k page size and 16k page size

Violin Installation:

Violin Memory 6616, with 16 Terabytes of storage

Connectivity:

The Violin flash memory array was attached to the SAN fabric with 4 x 8Gb Fiber-channel connections
The server was configured with 4 x 8Gb Fiber-channel connections and Linux Multipathing was used on the host

OLTP Test Driver Installation:

The OLTP test driver was installed on the same system as ASE

Backup/Recovery Test Driver Installation:

The Backup/Recovery Test Driver was installed on a separate machine

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Tests Performed

There were two overall sets of testing:

OLTP testing
Backup/Recovery testing

OLTP Testing

The OLTP testing simulated an order-entry environment that represents real-life business activities in order placement scenarios. It covered operations like new order placements, entry of customer payments, checks on order status, directives to fulfill shipment for orders placed and queries on updated inventory levels. Close to half the total number of transactions were new incoming orders. Transactions included processing, concurrency control, logging and various DML and database query operations.

The OLTP Test was done independently on three different ASE device configurations:

ASE devices on a Ext3 file system (one of the common file systems used for Linux) – This test was run with 3 data devices and 2 log devices
ASE devices on a Ext4 file system (one of the common file systems used for Linux) – This test was run with 3 data devices and 2 log devices
ASE devices on raw partitions – This test was run with 2 data devices and 1 log device

In addition, each OLTP test was performed independently with an ASE 4k page size and ASE 16k page size.

Backup/Recovery Testing

Database backup and recovery testing was performed to insure database consistency after backup and restore.

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Other Sources of Information

Sybase provides a site dedicated to the Sybase ASE product. On this page, there are links to Data Sheets, White Papers, Webcasts, Podcasts, News, Case Studies (customer success stories), Events, Analyst Reports, Videos, Awards, and Newsletters. There is also a link to download a trial of Sybase ASE.

The Sybase ASE Resource page is located at: http://www.sap.com/solutions/technology/database/adaptive-server-enterprise/index.epx

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Vendor Contact Information

Vendor Name: Violin Memory

Web Site: http://www.violin-memory.com/

Product Site: http://www.violin-memory.com/products/6000-flash-memory-array/

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