How Oracle is using CHARON-VAX to develop database products

1. Charon-VAX in
Rdb Engineering
Norman Lastovica
Oracle Rdb Engineering
Oracle New England Development Center
Norman.Lastovica@oracle.com
1

2. Problem Overview
• Needed to reduce computer lab footprint
– Floor space, power & cooling
• Very old hardware maintenance headache
– Unreliable & difficult to repair
– VAX computers over 15 years old
Some star Couplers, HSJs, disks even older
2

3. Problem Overview
• Performance of CPU, memory, Ethernet, disks,
controllers, & busses lag behind Alpha & I64
• Need multiple VAX environments for building,
testing, debugging & support for Rdb product
family
3

4. Charon-VAX Solution
• Replace approximately 12 large VAX systems (6000
& 7000 class) in several clusters with Charon-VAX
emulators
– Consolidate/simplify existing systems & clusters
• Migrate primarily to SAN-based storage
• Sub-goal of improved performance & reliability for
users (at least no reduction)
4

5. Remove VAX Hardware?
“Oracle Corporation supports VAX versions of Oracle Rdb and Oracle
CODASYL DBMS and their related products running on
CHARON-VAX provided that any problems reported can be
reproduced by Oracle Support on an actual VAX.”
“HP Services supports HP OpenVMS software on the CHARON-
VAX and CHARON-AXP emulators running on HP systems only.
Existing software service contracts are valid on supported
OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS Alpha AXP applications running
on the appropriate emulator. HP fixes software problems if they are
also seen in the comparable VAX or Alpha AXP environment.”
5

6. Extensive Testing
• Before announcing support for Rdb on Charon-
VAX
– Extensive Rdb & DBMS Regression tests
– Various Performance tests
– Consultations with HP & SRI
6

7. Performance
7

8. Prime Number Generation
20 • C program from Internet
• Single-user
15
• CPU intensive
10 • Dell laptop host system
– Single 2GHz Intel CPU
5 – …at 35,000 feet
0
Seconds
VAX 6650 Charon-VAX
8

9. More Prime Number
Generation
400 • C program from Internet
350 • Single-user
300
250
• CPU intensive
200 • HP BL25p host
150 – Dual 2.6GHz dual-core AMD
100
50
0
Seconds
VAX 6650 Charon 6630
9

10. Random Floating Point
Additions
80 • Update random floating
70 point numbers in 1MB
60 global section
50
40
• Single-user
30 • HP BL25p host
20 – Dual 2.6GHz dual-core AMD
10
0
Seconds
VAX 6650 Charon 6630
10

11. Lock Request Latencies
Local & Remote
1552
2000
58
1500 Hardware 6650
1060
1000
500
microseconds Charon-6630
12
0
Charon-6630 Hardware 6650 •HP BL25p host
–Dual 2.6GHz dual-core AMD
11

12. DBMS Regression Test
70 • Sun V65 host
60 – Dual 3.06GHz Intel with HT
50
– MSCP served disks via
Ethernet
40
30
20
10
0
CPU Elapsed
VAX 6550 Charon-VAX
12

13. Rdb Database Populate
20 • VAX 6650
– HSJ storage
15 • HP DL 585 host
– Quad 2.4GHz AMD
10 – Single IDE disk
5 • Single user store data
into database
0
Seconds
• Average for 100 txn
VAX 6650 Charon-VAX
13

14. Single User OLTP
2 • Single user
• Random DB update
1.5
• Average for 1,000 txn
1 • VAX 6650
– HSJ storage
0.5
• HP DL 585 host
– Quad 2.4GHz AMD
0
Seconds – Single IDE disk
VAX 6650 Charon-VAX
14

15. Synchronous
Random 5-block IO
• $IOT /COUNT=2000 /QUE=1
350 /SIZE=5 SYS$SYSDEVICE
300
• CI HSJ40 on VAX 6650
250
200 • Fibre EVA3000 on
150 Charon 6630
100
50
0
IO/Sec
VAX 6650 Charon 6630
15

16. Queue of
Random 5-block IO
• $IOT /COUNT=2000 /QUE=8
400 /SIZE=5 SYS$SYSDEVICE
350
300 • CI HSJ40 on VAX 6650
250 • Fibre EVA3000 on
200 Charon 6630
150
100
50
0
IO/Sec
VAX 6650 Charon 6630
16

17. Queue of
Random 5-block IO
• $IOT /COUNT=7500 /QUE=8
10000 /SIZE=5 RDB$TEST_SYS1:
8000 • Fibre EVA3000 on
6000
Charon 6630
4000
• Software Raid set of 10
disks on CI HSJ40s on
2000
VAX 6650
0
IO/Sec
VAX 6650 Charon 6630
17

18. Create and Sort File of
Random Records
1,000,000 records / 256,167 blocks
Elapsed Time CPU Time
03:36.0 03:36.0
02:52.8 02:52.8
02:09.6 02:09.6
01:26.4 01:26.4
00:43.2 00:43.2
00:00.0 00:00.0
Create Sort Create Sort
VAX 6650 Charon 6630 VAX 6650 Charon 6630
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19. What Host System To Pick?
19

20. HP ProLiant BL25p
Server Blade
• 1.7in (4.3cm) x 10.3in (26.2cm) x 28in (71cm)
• 21 lb (9.5 kg)
• Two Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ (2.6 GHz)
• 6GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM at 400 MHz
• 4 Gigabit NIC ports
• Dual Port 2-Gb Fibre Channel Adapter
• Internal HP 36GB U320 15K disk
20

21. Why BL25p?
• Two dual-core processors = 4 effective CPUs
– Run CHARON-VAX/6630 Plus for Windows
– Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Only 4GB memory of our 6GB usable due to limit in Standard
Edition (larger limits in “higher” Editions) – whoops
• More cost & space effective than 4p DL585
– Very near same peak performance (2.6GHz dual-core vs.
2.8GHz single-core)
21

22. Why BL25p?
• Up to 8 BL25p servers in single 10.5” tall enclosure
– Using existing rack space = no additional floor space
• Remote management capable
– Software KVM switch console / ILO
• Alternately: BL35p – 2 NIC ports, two 2.4GHz dual-
core, 5k or 10k internal disks - Same price per server -
Up to 16 per enclosure
22

23. Blade Enclosure
10.5 inches high
19 inch rack mount
8 BL25p or 16 BL35p
23

24. How to Deploy?
24

25. Phased Implementation
Plan
1. Replace 3 test clusters (total of 8 nodes) with
single 2 node cluster
• Install and test and experiment with new hardware and then
migrate workload and shutdown old systems
• Work out installation and configuration issues to avoid
impacting development cluster or test environments
2. Replace 3 VAX nodes in development cluster
25

26. Best of Intentions
• Multiple UPS failures in a single day
• 2 VAX systems in development cluster suffer
serious hardware damage – multiple power
supplies failed
• Leads to Accelerated Charon-VAX deployment
26

27. Original Development
Cluster Configuration
2 I64 rx4640 V8.2-1 2 Alpha V8.2 2 VAX 6650 V7.3
Ethernets
DECnet,
TCP/IP,
SCS
2 CI Rails
2Gb San
EVA5000 2 Star Couplers
HSJ40s
27

28. New Development Cluster
Configuration
2 I64 rx4640 2 Alpha 3 BL25p / Charon-6630
Ethernets
2Gb San DECnet,
TCP/IP,
SCS
EVA5000
28

29. Test Cluster Configuration
2 BL25p / Charon-6630
Ethernets
2Gb San DECnet,
TCP/IP,
SCS
EVA5000
29

30. Host Detail Configuration
6 BL25p / Charon-6630
Local windows
system disk &
page / swap
container file per
host for VMS
•Shared “DUA” disks per cluster
EVA5000 •VMS system & data disks
•“Raw” LUNs on SAN presented to
Windows
30

31. VAX Disks on SAN
• Charon presents raw SAN LUN as MSCP DUA device
• VAX/VMS sees it as “DUAx:” just like from HSJ
• If needed - must be MSCP served from VAX to other
Alpha/I64 nodes –can not access LUN directly because
it appears as “DGA” device
• Multiple Charon-VAX systems in cluster access same
SAN LUN with same DUA name
31

32. Memory Configuration
• Various 128MB, 256MB & 512MB on 76x0,
66x0, 65x0, 64x0 test and development systems
• 1GB on our Charon-6630
– Can be increased to 2GB with enough host system memory
• Perhaps allow VMS processes larger caches
and/or working sets to reduce paging & IO
32

33. Disk Configuration
• Local host Windows system disk
– Could alternately have been on SAN
• VAX system disk on EVA5000 disk unit shared
between multiple Charon hosts in Cluster
• VAX system page/swap disk is container file on
local host disk
33

34. Disk Performance
• Access to VAX system disk on SAN roughly 2 to 50
times faster than CI based HSJ storage
• MSCP served disks from Alpha about equal from
Charon-6630 (via NI) as hardware VAX (via CI)
• Once new configuration proves reliable, CI-related
hardware will be retired
34

35. System Performance
• Single Charon-6630 roughly 3 times faster than
hardware 6650
– On our host, Charon-66x0 CPU runs around 3 to 6 times
faster than hardware 66x0 CPU
• Less CPUs should result in less inter-processor
contention (ie, MPSYNCH time)
35

36. Application Performance
• First Rdb regression test suite run time reduced
from about 12 hours to about 8 hours – 33%
increase
36

37. Relatively Simple
Deployment
• Install & configure Windows Server 2003
Standard Edition
– Install windows updates / patches, anti-virus, Charon
– Disable documented windows services
– Configure prototype Charon-VAX emulator template files
• Replicate Windows disk to other hosts
37

38. Relatively Simple
Deployment
• Create VAX disk LUNs on SAN
1. Make visible to existing Alpha or I64 system in cluster
2. BACKUP/IMAGE existing VAX disks to new LUNs
3. Make LUNs visible to PC host servers
4. Shutdown VAX systems cluster-wide, dismount CI disks
on remaining nodes
5. Start Charon-VAX and boot from LUN on multiple hosts
6. Mount new disks (served via MSCP to cluster from
Charon-VAX nodes) on remaining nodes
38

39. Watch Out For…
• Read all documentation before you embark
– Charon-VAX, Windows Server 2003
• Difficult to work with raw LUNs from SAN to
Windows for VMS cluster disks
• Disk unit numbers presented to cluster & disk
allocation classes
39

40. Watch Out For…
• Boot options & saving in ROM file
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition limits
4p & 4GB
– Other “editions” offer higher limits
• Users concerned that things may be broken
because they run so fast!
40

41. Questions & Comments?
41