Sizing and Selection of a Server to run Roadrunnner.

The resorces requiered on a system to run roadrunner at an acceptable speed depend in the main on the size of the data files {Number of bookings}, and on the number of users.

As a database application performance is very dependant on the disk and memory subsystems, spending money here will often have a larger impact on overall system performance than fitting a faster processor.

The following tables are intended to provide some guidence in the selection of a sutable machine/memmory/disk configuration.

In all cases sizeing is based on the the number of Haulage Movements.
Assumptions are :-

PC systems

PC based systems {SCO}

PC based systems {Novel}

PC based systems {NT}

IBM RS6000 systems running AIX

For larger systems or systems with a need for higher reliability in a multi disk environment. AIX provides mirroring options to maintain 2 or more copies of vital data.

Disk drives are agegated into "volume groups". Where the boot volume group (rootvg) contains 3 or more disks the mirroring options mean that the system can be configured to boot and run, providing that the majority of the drives remain functional.

For highest posible disk performance look at a 2 volume group arrangement with a 3 disk rootvg containing the Operating system, Paging space, and temporary files. With a second volume group of 3+ disks containing the active data.

If using Warehouse as well as Traffic on the same system add the number of Haulage and Werehouse movements together.

Current systems running AIX

All information is aproximate and provided as a guide. A system selected acording to the chart should support groth of 10% per year for a 4 year working life.

Server Selection

GUI clients count each session as a user.

Relativity in simple terms count a relativity client as a user. Beware porely structured queries can run for a long time and adversly affect response time for other users. This is less of a problem with the multi processor systems.

If you are planning to repeatedly run a query taking longer than say 10, seconds it is almost cirtainly worth, the cost of having a SQL expert optimize it. Or investing in apropriate training.

ROADRUNNER server selection matrix{AIX}
  Number of Movements to be held   Number of active users.
4 8 16 32 64 96
25,000       P140 P140 P140
50,000     P140 P140 P140, C20 P140, 390, E20
100,000   P140 P140 P140, C20 P140, P240, C20, E20 P240/2, E30, F30, F40
200,000 P140 P140 P140 P140, C20, E20, F30 P240/2, E30, F40, 590 39H, E30/166, F40/2, G40/1
400,000 P140 P140 P140, E20, C20 P240/2, E30, G40/1 390H, E30/166, J40/2, 590, F40 G40/2, E30/233, R20, F40/2
800,000 P140 C20, E20 390, E30, F30 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 G40/2, E30/233, J40/2, 59H, F40/2, R20 G40/2, R24, F50, R40/2
1,600,000 C20, E20 390, E30, F30 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 E30/233, G40/2, J40/2, 590H, F40/2, R20 G40/4, J40/4, R24, F50, R40/2 J40/6, R40/4
3,200,000 390, E30, F30 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 E30/233, G40/2, J40/2, 590H, F40/2, R20 G40/2, J40/4, R24, F50, R40/2 G40/4, J40/6, R40/4 J40/8, R40/6
6,400,000 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 G40/2, E30/233, G40/2, J40/2, 590H, F40/2, R20 G40/4, J40/4, R24, F50, R40/2 J40/6, R40/4 J40/8, R40/6 R50/8

Memory Selection

Memory has a big impact on performance. You need enough memory to hold the kernel tables, application work space, and file indexes in cache.

GUI clients, requier more memory on the server than text clients.

Relativity, For a well writen query, doing a similar task to say a Roadrunner Screen enquiery or print memory use is similar to that of a text based client and may be treted as such for memory sizing.

However poory thoughtout or writen enquieries can try to pull entire files in to memory. So if you are planing to repeatedly run long, enquieries try adding No Movements / 1000 Megabytes of RAM as a bad enquiery premium.

Item Mega Bytes
Kernel 12
runcobolNo Users * 3.5 
GUI serverNo Users * 18.5 
IndexesNo Movements  / 10,000 
 =
Total  

The following table covers text clients and typical systems sizes. if you have some GUI clients count them as users and then add 15MB per GUI user to the values in the table below.

Memory selection matrix Roadrunner text clients{AIX}
  Roadrunner version 6.xx 7.xx AIX version 3.xx, 4.xx, 5.xx
  Number of Movements to be held   Number of active users.
4 8 16 32 64 96
25,000 32MB 64MB 64MB 96MB 192MB 384MB
50,000 48MB 64MB 64MB 96MB 192MB 384MB
75,000 64MB 64MB 64MB 96MB 192MB 384MB
100,000 64MB 64MB 64MB 128MB 192MB 384MB
200,000 64MB 64MB 128MB 128MB 192MB 384MB
400,000 128MB 128MB 128MB 128MB 256MB 384MB
800,000 128MB 192MB 256MB 256MB 384MB 512MB
1,600,000 256MB 384MB 512MB 512MB 512MB 1024MB
3,200,000 512MB 1024MB 1024MB 1024MB 1536MB 2048MB
6,400,000 1024MB 1024MB 1024MB 1024MB 2048MB 2048MB

Disk Drive Selection

Disk drive manufacturers have improved the technology over the last 10 years. Giving 1000 times the storage capacity, but only doubled the number of operations per second.

This means that database applications tend to run out of disk access performance long before they run out of physical space.

ROADRUNNER disk drive selection matrix{AIX}
 Roadrunner version 3.xx, 4.xx, 5.xx, 6.xx AIX version 4.xx
  Number of Movements to be held  Number of active users.
4 8 16 32 64 96
25,000 1 1 1 1 1 1
50,000 1 1 1 1 1 1
75,000 1 1 1 1 2 2
100,000 1 1 1 2 2 3
200,000 2 2 2 3 3 4
400,000 2 2 3 4 5 6
800,000 4 5 6 8 10 12
1,600,000 4 5 6 8 10 12
3,200,000 8 12 16 18 21 24
6,400,000 12 14 20 24 28 32

Past systems running AIX

This section inludes details for older systems and Roadrunner versions. These tables are maintained as while in general it makes sence to replace systems after 4 to 5 years. There are numerouse older systems still in use.

Server selection

ROADRUNNER system selection matrix{AIX}
  Number of bookings to be held   Number of active users.
4 8 16 32 64 96
25,000       P140 P140 P140
50,000     P140 P140 P140, C20 P140, 390, E20
100,000   P140 P140 P140, C20 P140, P240, C20, E20 P240/2, E30, F30, F40
200,000 P140 P140 P140 P140, C20, E20, F30 P240/2, E30, F40, 590 39H, E30/166, F40/2, G40/1
400,000 P140 P140 P140, E20, C20 P240/2, E30, G40/1 390H, E30/166, J40/2, 590, F40 G40/2, E30/233, R20, F40/2
800,000 P140 C20, E20 390, E30, F30 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 G40/2, E30/233, J40/2, 59H, F40/2, R20 G40/2, R24, F50, R40/2
1,600,000 C20, E20 390, E30, F30 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 E30/233, G40/2, J40/2, 590H, F40/2, R20 G40/4, J40/4, R24, F50, R40/2 J40/6, R40/4
3,200,000 390, E30, F30 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 E30/233, G40/2, J40/2, 590H, F40/2, R20 G40/2, J40/4, R24, F50, R40/2 G40/4, J40/6, R40/4 J40/8, R40/6
6,400,000 390H, E30/166, G40/1, 590, F40 G40/2, E30/233, G40/2, J40/2, 590H, F40/2, R20 G40/4, J40/4, R24, F50, R40/2 J40/6, R40/4 J40/8, R40/6 R50/8

Memory selection

The older versions of Roadrunner used less memory, than current versions. Systems purchased at this time are likely to have been configured with 1 to 1.5 MB per user.

This should be checked when upgradiing software.

ROADRUNNER memory selection matrix{AIX}
  Roadrunner version 4.xx AIX version 3.xx
  Number of bookings to be held   Number of active users.
4 8 16 32 64 96
25,000 16MB 16MB 16MB 32MB 64MB 96MB
50,000 16MB 16MB 32MB 32MB 64MB 128MB
75,000 16MB 32MB 32MB 32MB 64MB 128MB
100,000 32MB 32MB 48MB 64MB 128MB 128MB
200,000 48MB 48MB 64MB 128MB 128MB 256MB
400,000 64MB 128MB 128MB 128MB 192MB 256MB
800,000 128MB 192MB 256MB 256MB 384MB 512MB
1,600,000 256MB 384MB 512MB 512MB 512MB 1024MB
3,200,000 512MB 1024MB 1024MB 1024MB 1536MB 2048MB
6,400,000 1024MB 1024MB 1024MB 1024MB 2048MB 2048MB