Re: SQL Server vs INFORMIX

Ing. Melvin Perez Cedano wrote: > > Hello Informixers. > > Anybody knows about any project started with SQL Server that have been > failed. I have a customer evaluating SQL Server vs INFORMIX and I know > all the technical advantages of Informix, but I would like to present a > real life case. > > Anyway, if you have a list of pros and cons between them would be > helpful for me. > > Thanks in advance, > -- > ////// > +---------------------------ooo-O-O-ooo--------------------------------+ > | U | > | Melvin Perez Cedano Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep.| > | Vice-President cam@codetel.net.do | > | Systems Development Phone (809) 686-5574 | > | CAM Informatica, S. A. Fax (809) 686-5467 | > +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ > | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | > | This posting is copyright and may be used only for the purposes | > | of professional study or the professional exchange of information. | > | Use of this posting by any commercial organisation for the | > | purposes of vilifying another is explicitly prohibited. | > +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ Melvin, I've tested both, side by side, used MS C++ for a transaction testing program, to do high-volume inserts, updates. SQLServer goes only so fast, and that's it. As far as I can remember the maximum transaction rate is around 150/sec. It doesn't matter what you do to "tune" SQLServer, it's a piece of shit. Poopoo. MudSucker. MS has purposely crippled the transaction rate with SQLServer. The maximum transaction rate is documented somewhere on the MS site, but due to the dynamic nature of MS's site, I don't remember where I saw this. I think it's in their knowledge base thingy. My test was on a system with just 32 MB RAM, ISA, pentium 166mhz. And your mileage may vary. A lot depends on what raw nerve wasn't being stroked on NT when we did the test, and how you tune SQLServer. NT is so damn sensitive to events, anything can skew the results. Performance Monitor is a nice way to watch. ( BTW it'd be nice if Informix would supply metrics for their engine. ) Something as trivial as a maximize-minimize-window event can tumble the performance significantly. On short data loads I didn't see any significant difference between the two. There were irregular loading rates for both. transactions/sec varied widely on loads and updates of 1000 records or less. NT seems to drastically affect loads and transaction groups that are small. It could have everything to do with tuning, which for SQLServer is really not a well-documented subject, I suspect because they are coming out with Sphyncter--er Sphynx--the next SQLServer, which they will have plenty of MS lovers slobbering over it in no time. It'll probably have lots of bells and whistles and drill-down menus to keep your system crashing regularly for days. :-) NT 4.x cannot really be tuned, other than just adding more memory, and splitting up the swapspace over two or more disks. Informix appears to run faster on large transactions such as inserts, as in loading data. I get really good results on 10mb load files, in under 30 seconds. Can't remember what SuQmeServer was, it was abandoned after we hit the wall on 150/tps. (trans per sec) Not only does the speed issue come up, but configuring Informix is so much better. I can set up temp dbspaces and other settings much more precisely with Informix, and there's no fragmentation with SQLServer. Much of tuning SQLServer is a wild ass guess. The tuning parameters for SQLServer are cryptic and poorly/undocumented. Their read-aheads are low out of the box, and recommended not to be touched. You can't configure logging with SQLServer either, for any of it. Their SQL is also a real goofy old SQL, so you're buying OLD technology with SQLServer. You're better off buying the latest Sybase for a better comparison. Informix has ROLEs in the ODS for NT BTW, SQLServer does not. SQLServer is somewhat easy to admin, but over time it is a pain. Informix is much easier to admin, even with the requirement for DOMAIN admin-level perms for the DBA. This is an NT thang, but Informix could actually make the configuring and adding of other Informix servers a bit easier, and remove the necessity for Domain-Admin priveleges just to add a server to the Informix Neighborhood. SQLServer cannot be easily administered from the command line, if at all. dbimport/dbexport are real easy with Informix, SQLServer has BCP, which must be run through the GUI. Of course it'd be nice to see dbimport via a GUI, but maybe this will be forthcoming. It's nice though to have a choice. SQLServer does most of what it does ONE WAY, and no other. Very limited. Informix also has onload in addition to dbimport/dbexport. Lots of options with Informix. SQLServer is also heavily dependent on stored procedures, some that are very nice, but much too reliance on them. The only reason people use SQLServer is because it is real easy to acquire, and fairly easy to install. If ODS were just a bit more easy to acquire and install there would not be any need for a comparison. The install for Informix could be improved a little more by: 1. automatically adding a physdbs and pointing the physical log to it. 2. automatically adding a logsdbs and pointing the logical logs to it. 3. adding one tempdbs and pointing DBSPACETEMP to it RATHER THAN rootdbs!!! HELLO! Newbies will get SUCKY performance out of Informix until they learn to point DBSPACETEMP to something OTHER THAN rootdbs. Is this some kind of sabotage for Informix? I would change this immediately. It can actually crash transactions, etc. setting it like that! Newbies will get sucky performance, then think there's something wrong with the product. 4. Allowing a person to install just the Command Center without having to go through so much of an unnecessary part of the opening install. 5. Stating a bit more clearly what the steps are that are being performed when defining the first dataspace that is NOT rootdbs. All in all, I'd still go Informix hands down. It's worth learning too, because you can apply most of what you know to the UNIX version. Most of us UNIX folk have done that going to NT. Go ahead, use Informix, you won't go wrong. ( I can't hardly wait for Informix to get ported to Linux, then we'll see some real smokin'.... ) Tim -- Tim Schaefer \\\\|// tschaefe@mindspring.com 6 6 -------------------------oOOo---( )---o00o---------------------- http://www.inxutil.com - My Ezine http://www.informix.com - Informix Software Inc. http://www.iiug.org - International Informix User Group/FAQ news://comp.databases.informix - Newsgroup for Informix Users ================================================================