Re: Informix Online Performance

> I'm trying to get a quick overview of the performance improvement of > Online over SE. Eventually, I'd like to do some serious benchmarking, > and if anyone has some good ideas about how to go about it I'd be > very interested, but for now I'm just looking for some very > approximate figures - e.g. is the performance improvement > more like 20% or 80%. We're using SCO 3.2.4.2 and are considering > moving to OS 5 in the future. Andy help would be appreciated. > > Thanks, > > Andy Mason Begin soapbox IMHO, a straight out-of-the-box conversion from SE to OnLine would net you only a marginal improvement in db performance, and cost you a lot of DBA frustration, as he tried to keep the thing running. The benefit of OnLine over SE is that it is tunable to you specific application. The benefit of ODS (version >= 6) over versions <= 5 is that they are even *more* tunable. Here's the catch: tuned correctly, an OnLine database can be way faster than SE. Tuned wrong, it can be way slower! Setting up a database to take best advantage of the hardware, provide the best service to the application, to perform the necessary tasks of archiving and maintenance is a very demanding challenge. If you want it done right it will take lots of time and money. The hardest part is understanding the application, next is understanding the hardware (witness the RAID discussion), and then the OnLine engine is relatively simple! Serious benchmarking is so hard to do for just these reasons. Here's a no-brainer: which is faster, a table with an index or one without? WRONG! What if the table has only 10 rows? What if you are *loading* the table? (Then we build the indexes after the load finishes!) So the answer is...(drum roll, please)..."A lot faster!" In direct proportion to the work you invest. End soapbox I hope that helps. It comes from hard experience. __________________________________________________________________ | Clem Akins Standard Disclaimers Apply | |Reynolds Metals Co, Alloys Plant "Climb High, Cave Deep!" | | Muscle Shoals, Alabama USA cwakins@leia.alloys.rmc.com | |________________________________________________________________|