Database Reference
In-Depth Information
1.7.2 Antivirus
Essbase is a multidimensional database that stores data and key security information in
binary files. Like other database software antivirus scans of the database, files can cause
performance issues. oracle recommends excluding antivirus real-time scanning of the
hyperion installation directories and/or a scheduled scan with the hyperion suite shutdown.
1.7.3 Hyperthreading
Intel released a technology called hyperthreading in 2003. This technology makes one
core appear as two cores to the operating system. Some applications have a performance
gain with hyperthreading and some have a net loss. Essbase experiences a net loss in
performance with hyperthreading and every server that runs the ESSBASE/ESSvr
processes should have hyperthreading disabled. The performance loss to Essbase from
hyperthreading is between 15 and 20%. Conversely, the Java application servers do have
a performance gain.
1.7.4 Virtual versus Physical
Installation on a physical machine is straightforward. Essbase will have all the perfor-
mance characteristics of that machine.
virtualization for Intel x86 servers went mainstream in 2001 with the introduction of
vmware's server virtualization. In the decade since, virtualization has become a normal
tool in It datacenters.
virtualization apportions the physical machine into logical segments or virtual
machines (vms) that run independently of one another. vm performance depends on
the competing requirements of the other vms running on the physical machine plus
some virtualization overhead. virtualization can offer many benefits when used prop-
erly with flexible scalability and fault tolerance as the two main strengths.
I have seen virtualization work well as well as work poorly. In the cases where it works
poorly, the issues are a combination of age of the physical hardware, lack of resources
(CPu/memory) on physical hardware, overcommitted virtual machines, and poor per-
formance of the storage subsystems. Consider physical machines or large-scale unix
implementations for more than 500 users.
When using virtualization, I recommend vmware as I feel they have a focused con-
centration and vested interest in the technology compared to other vendors who spread
their focus on more products. See table 1.17 for a listing of virtualization products.
1.7.5 Ensure File Systems Are Fully Formatted
IBm's AIx has a hard drive partitioning it brands as LPAr (Logical Partition). LPArs
may host IBm operating systems other than AIx as well; however, AIx is the only oper-
ating system on the IBm PoWEr platform that supports the hyperion stack.
hP's hPux nPar technology is their hard partitioning technology.
The Solaris equivalent hard partitioning technology has been branded oraclevm
Server, which was previously named LDom (Logical Domains). oracle also has made
oraclevm Server available in their oracle Enterprise Linux (a redhat Linux variant).
1.7.6 Named User versus Processor Licensing
oracle has two main user licensing schemes: named user and Processor Licensing.
Processor licensing allows for an unlimited number of users, but limits performance
