Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 9-1
Continued
Question
Explanation
Is the database installed on the
When an application runs on the same machine
same machine running the
as the database, the database driver uses the
application, or is it installed on
network in a loop-back mode, or it doesn't use
a different machine?
the network at all and communicates directly with
the database using shared memory. If your applica-
tion makes data requests over the network in your
production environment, you need to gauge what
effect the network will have on performance in
your test environment. See “Network,” page 86, for
more information.
What are the model, speed, cache,
The processing speed and capacity of the CPU
and number of CPUs and cores
on the database server or application server
of the processor hardware on your
affect performance. See “CPU (Processor),” page
database server and application
112, for more information.
server?
How much physical memory
The memory on your client, application server,
(RAM) is available on your
and database server affects performance. For
database server and clients?
example, large result sets can cause paging to disk if
memory is insufficient, dramatically slowing per-
formance. See “Memory,” page 107, for more infor-
mation.
What is the size and bus interface
The capacity and bus interface type of the hard
type of the hard disk on your
disk on your database server and application
database server and application
server affect performance. For example, SCSI is
server?
generally faster than Serial ATA (SATA). See “Disk,”
page 110, for more information.
What is the speed of the network
The speed of the network adapter controls the
adapter on your database server
amount of bandwidth a network link provides,
and clients?
which in turn affects performance. If the band-
width constraints of the network in your test envi-
ronment are significantly different from those of
your production environment, your benchmark
results may not be a reliable predictor of perfor-
mance. See “Network Adapter,” page 116, for more
information.
