Linux vs Microsoft: DBMS

["HUGO NU@EZ BRISE@O" <hugonb en bital com mx>]

Algo importante para Linux!
Saludos.

****************************
Take that! Linux beats MS in benchmark test

   By Peter Galli, eWEEK, and Mary Jo Foley, Ziff Davis Internet
   eWEEK
   May 15, 2001 3:16 PM PT
   Linux has finally made it onto the business map in the area of
database benchmarks, helping
   take the wind out of Microsoft's continued contention that
open-source operating systems don't
   make good business sense.

   While benchmark wars are commonplace in the database space, until the
latest TPC-H numbers
   were released Microsoft had come to largely dominate the TPC numbers
with a combination of SQL
   Server 2000 running on Windows 2000 across a variety of hardware
platforms.

   The Transaction Processing Performance Council released new data this
week showing that IBM's
   upcoming DB2 7.2 release running on Linux 2.4.3 outperforms SQL
Server 2000 running on
   Windows 2000 in the 100GB category.

   The winning entry was clocked on an SGI 1450 server. DB2 7.2 is due
to ship on June 8, while the
   SGI-Linux-IBM combination system is expected to be commercially
available from October 31.

   The TPC-H is a decision support benchmark. According to the TPC Web
site, TPC-H "illustrates
   decision support systems that examine large volumes of data, execute
queries with a high degree
   of complexity and give answers to critical business questions."

   The performance metric reported by TPC-H is called the TPC-H
Composite Query-per-Hour
   Performance Metric (QphH@Size), and it reflects multiple aspects of
the capability of the system to
   process queries. The winning SGI-Linux-IBM entry clocked 2733 QphH
compared to the 1699QphH
   of the second-place SQL Server 2000 running on Windows 2000.

   Big Blue answers critics
   IBM officials said that the company submitted the benchmark for
several reasons.

   "We are interested in helping bring Linux into the mainstream. There
has been no TPC benchmark
   published on Linux to date," said Berni Schiefer, IBM distinguished
engineer and manager of
   performance and advanced technology with the data management
solutions group. "No TPC-C,
   TPC-H, TPC-R or TPC-W."

   At the same time, IBM wanted to answer critics who still maintain
that DB2 runs only on IBM
   hardware, Schiefer added. "We have established DB2 as a multi-vendor,
multi-platform database."

   The DB2 on Linux configuration is running on a
four-node/four-server-per-node SGI server that is
   currently shipping. But SGI is bringing some new features to its
Linux release via its Pro Pack
   add-on, and IBM is adding some additional features to DB2 7.2
designed to make Linux more
   scalable, IBM officials said. For example, IBM is adding a
vectored-read facility to DB2 that will
   enable large reads into buffer pools--a feature aimed at improving
data-warehousing support,
   Schiefer said.

   While the DB2 on Linux TPC-H configuration isn't the least expensive
of the top 10 TPC entries, IBM
   was tuning primarily for performance, not price/performance with this
benchmark, officials said.
   Although TPC council rules forbid vendors from projecting about
future TPC submissions, IBM will
   likely make tweaks that improve the overall price/performance ratios
of DB2 on Linux going forward,
   officials confirmed.

   Microsoft: Welcome to the clubhouse
   Jeff Ressler, lead product manager for Microsoft's SQL Server team
said it was "interesting to finally
   see someone else finally playing in the 100GB category, which we have
dominated with no
   competition for some time."

   While he accepted the results, the tests did not compare "apples to
apples in the sense that the
   amount of computing horsepower there is not the same," Ressler said.
"You do have to take into
   consideration things like the management requirements around a
cluster of four machines versus
   a single machine."

   Ressler also downplayed the Linux role in the benchmark, saying it
was important also to
   remember that this was a database test and not an operating system
evaluation. While
   benchmarks are important as customers look at them as a validation
that a product will perform
   and scale, the real validation comes from experience in the field
with running mission-critical
   systems, he said.

   "And that's something Linux doesn't have--a legacy of accountability
like SQL Server or Oracle or DB
   2 have," Ressler added. "DB2 is an established database but is here
running on an operating
   system that is a relatively new player," he said.

   The winning entry also used twice as many processors as the
second-place SQL Server 2000
   running on Windows 2000. It was also not competitive on a
price/performance basis.

   "It remains to be seen how beneficial this will be for SGI or Red Hat
or IBM for that matter," Ressler
   said. "Yes, it's got a good performance number but
theprice/performance is just not there.

   "They are also using four machines rather than a single
machine--which means four times as
   much to manage--as well as twice as many processors. We're also 25
percent more efficient than
   them for CPU," he said.

   Going forward, Microsoft is actively working on a variety of
benchmarks.

   "You always want to be number one but having someone else playing in
the 100GB space is a
   validation of its importance," Ressler said. "We're always looking
for better performance, and you
   can expect to see further results from us in the future," he said.

   An interesting footnote: Oracle wasn't on the list.

   "They seem to have decided not to play in the space where customers
are actually playing," Ressler
   said.

--
Atte.
Hugo Núñez Briseño


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