[AccessD] x64 tests

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Jan 8 09:17:15 CST 2008


Azul actually died the other day.  The computer shut down suddenly and when
I opened it up the Heat Sink Fan was just hanging loose inside of the case.
It turns out that two of the three plastic tabs on one side of the
foundation that holds the HSF in place had broken off.  This is the second
time this has happened to me!  To be honest though, I think this is my
fault.  The HSF I use is a rather large affair, heat pipes to a large
radiator etc.  It is very tough to see down under it and it is very tough to
get the retaining bracket correctly hooked over the tabs when the
motherboard is mounted in the case.  I think I probably did not get the
retaining bracket square so the tabs that broke off had a larger shear load.
Sigh.

Anyway, the motherboard is not usable.  I might be able to get the plastic
HSF foundation part, it just bolts onto the motherboard.  We'll see.  I
wanted to use one of these motherboards to replace the aging board that runs
my Address validation process.  If I can't get the bracket, I will likely
just buy the same little motherboard that I used for the Windows Home
Server.

In the meantime I decided to just go with it and put the new motherboard I
bought last week into the case that Azul occupied.  It has the first Areca
Raid controller that I purchased and the eight 320 gig drives.  I also
decided to install the quad core processor onto the motherboard BEFORE
putting the motherboard into the case so that I can inspect the mounting
bracket, get is square and hopefully avoid the issues I had with Azul.  

When I brought up the quad core, the motherboard complained about the two
different pairs of memory sticks so I had to pull one out to get it running.
The sticks are different brands and timings.  Both are DDR2 800 but one set
was a CAS 5 and the other set CAS 6.  People advise against using mismatched
sticks like that but my experience has been that if you use "worst case", in
this case set the motherboard to use CAS 6, then it works just fine.  I will
probably drop the other set back in later but to get it to boot and run I
had to pull it out.

So... W2k3x64 now lives in the case where Azul formerly resided.  I got the
Raid drivers installed so that W2k3x64 can see the raid array, and I am
copying the databases that I was testing in the x64 tests below onto that
raid array.  I should soon have a benchmark with Windows 2003x64 and SQL
Server 2005x64, using 4 gigs of RAM.  The 8 gig benchmark will follow if the
memory will place nice together in this motherboard and with this processor.
Unfortunately this also means I will not be getting a Windows x64 / Sql
Server 2005 X64 benchmark on a dual core.  The processor socket on this new
motherboard is turned 90 degrees from the old motherboard and is even more
difficult to get the HSF seated properly with the board installed, and it is
a ROYAL PITA to pull the motherboard so it just isn't worth the pain to me
just for a benchmark.

>>>>>>>>>>>

So the answer is... 6:36 seconds to run the count query on the new system.

>>>>>>>>>>>

>W2k3x64 runs the query in 9:26 (9 minutes and 26 seconds) and counts
630,025 records (just a check that we are counting the same thing).

This was the previous run for W2k3x64.  As discussed in the previous email,
the old W2Kx64 only had a pair of IDE 100 drives, and Windows and SQL Server
were installed on one, while the DATA database files were installed on the
other.

In the new system Windows boots off of an IDE 100 drive, AND the SQL Server
is installed there and the SQL Server system databases reside there.
Basically I just moved the old Boot drive into the new chassis (where the
raid array lives), and the boot drive already had Windows 2k3x64 and SQL
Server 2005x64 installed on that C: drive.  Because SQL Server installed on
C: it put its system databases on that drive as well.

The main databases now reside on the raid array as opposed to being on the
second IDE drive in the old W2Kx64 system.  So while I did pick up a 33%
decrease in the time to do the count by moving the database from a single
IDE drive onto the RAID array, it is still well below the 5:26 required by
Stonehenge which is Windows 2K3x32 and SQL Server 2005x32.  It does show
however what a fast RAID array does for the system!

And in the end I still don't know anything, such is the problem with doing
benchmarks in the real world.  Is it the fact that Windows is running off an
IDE instead of the raid?  Or the SQL Server system databases running on the
IDE?  Or is W2K3x64 and SQL Server 2005x64 just slower than the 32 bit
brethren?  Or is it something else entirely?  You really HAVE to change one
variable at a time and circumstances made that inconvenient to say the
least.

According to benchmarks the quad core I am using should be somewhat faster
that the dual core I am using.  It is quad core rather than dual core so if
Windows and SQL Server can use the extra cores it SHOULD give the process a
boost.  It is pretty hard to sort out what the problem is though and a bit
discouraging because of that.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 9:13 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Cc: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues';
dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] x64 tests

OK, I have the x64 system up and running.  I am doing tests on the same four
databases.  I have:

HSID which contains data used in selection criteria, with a PK.  50 million
records.
AZHSID contains address validated records of name / address fields
originally in HSID.  With a PK matching the PKs in HSID.  50 million records
ZipCodeWorld contains about 80K records of valid zip codes.  It has
information that allows me to exclude prisons, military FPOs etc.
PSM11132 contains all of the queries required for me to fill an actual order
of addresses (112000) going out to a client.

The order asks for:

Source File	FIELD	Select Codes		Description	Geography
					
HSID/INF	074	2, 3, 6	OR	Female 35 44	
HSID/INF	073	2, 3, 6		Female 45-54	
			AND		
HSID/INF	091	7-9, A-T		INC $50,000+	
			AND		
HSID/INF	282	Y		Tennis	
HSID/INF	283	Y	OR	Golf	
HSID/INF	284	Y	OR	Snow Skiing	
HSID/INF	288	Y	OR	Bicycling	
HSID/INF	292	Y	OR	Running	
HSID/INF	294	Y	OR	Horseback Riding	
HSID/INF	298	Y	OR	Power Boating	
HSID/INF	299	Y		Sailing	
			AND		
Zip Code World	015	16980		CBSA	Chicago
Zip Code World	015	19820	OR	CBSA	Detroit
Zip Code World	015	12580	OR	CBSA	Baltimore
Zip Code World	015	31100	OR	CBSA	Los Angeles
Zip Code World	015	35620	OR	CBSA	New York
Zip Code World	015	37980	OR	CBSA	Philadelphia
Zip Code World	015	47900		CBSA	Washington DC

As you can see basically they want women 35 to 54, income > 50K who
participate in various hobbies, and live in selected big metropolitan areas.

In order to prep the order I had to build cover indexes (field and PK) on
the hobby fields.  I already had cover indexes on the income and PK, and a
single cover index on ALL of the age fields plus the PK.  

I then built FOUR different views.  One for Age/Sex, one for income, and one
for hobbies.  Those three are ANDS so by pulling the PKs for each of those
views I could do an inner join to get the AND.  From these queries I
actually only pulled the PK field itself to minimize data pulled out of the
table.  I did not need the select data itself, just the PKs for the joins.  

I then built a fourth view of Zip Code World (ZCW) using the CBSA code that
selected ZIPS in specific metropolitan areas.  From this view I pulled ONLY
the zip field.

I built a FIFTH master view that pulled in the four views above, PLUS the
AZHSID table.  AZHSID contains the PK to match the HSID select views, plus
address validated name / address information.  That information will be
actually extracted and written into a flat file on disk, zipped and sent to
the client.

So I have age/sex, income, hobbies and AZHSID inner joined.  The data pulled
is just the PKID and name / address which includes Zip.  I then inner join
the zip from the ZCW view to limit the addresses to those in the right zip
codes.

Whew.

OK, so the thing I am going to time is the COUNT of the PKs in this big
query (how many people match all the criteria and live in the right zips).
I am going to time the count on my original system that I actually used to
run this order, and then on the new system.  

The original system (Stonehenge) is a AMD "3800" X2 with 4 gigs ram, Windows
2003 x32, SQL Server 2005 x32, with a dedicated raid controller card with an
8 drive raid 6 array.

The new system (W2k3x64) is (currently) an AMD "3800" x2 with 4 gigs ram,
Windows 2003 x64, SQL Server 2005 x64, with a pair of 650 gig IDE 100 hard
disks.  No raid.  The databases reside on one of the 650 gig drives and the
OS resides on the other.

Stonehenge runs the count query in 5:32 (5 minutes, 32 seconds) and counts
630,025 valid addresses with the criteria above, in the zips specified.
W2k3x64 runs the query in 9:26 (9 minutes and 26 seconds) and counts 630,025
records (just a check that we are counting the same thing).

So the first thing that we see is that the new system is slower.  The
difference is likely caused by the fact that the Raid array in Stonehenge
STREAMS data at 400 mbytes / sec whereas the single disk in W2k3x64 streams
MUCH slower, probably around 50 mbytes / second.  We do not KNOW that is the
reason for the difference at this point, but it is a pretty good bet.  I
"sacrificed" the video controller from Azul to build the new system (yea,
poor planning, forgot the damned video card) so I will probably move the
raid array into the new system, or more likely move the new system (and boot
disk) into the cabinet that Azul currently occupies.  Moving a raid array
with 8 disks is not something I want to do if I can avoid it.

Next, I am going to pull the other 4 gigs (two 2 gig sticks) out of Azul and
move it into W2k3x64.  I have a video card on order, will be here next week
but for now Azul is dead anyway so I might as well scrounge the memory as
well.

I did not take CPU and memory usage readings with just the 4 gigs, but with
8 in there both processors are pegging (100%) and the memory usage is
maximum (only about 200 megs available) and it is using about 8 gigs of page
file as well.

W2k3x64 runs the same query in 9:11 after adding two additional sticks of
memory and boosting the total to 8 gigs.

Oddly, SQL Server has a little control for telling it how much it can have
max, and it is maxed at ~2 gig bytes.  I was under the impression that it
would now allow SQL Server to natively use more ram.  Sigh.  there is an
unchecked box for "Use AWE to allocate memory" which I just checked and am
now rerunning the query a third time.

With AWE memory enabled, the query ran in 8:27.  A slight boost but
certainly not stellar.  So why is SQL Server not using more memory natively?

What I really need to do is create a dual boot with Windows 2003 x32 and SQL
Server 2003 x32, and then run the count query again for that.  I suspect
though that the Raid card and array would do more than anything to bump the
speed back up.

I am going to swap the quad core processor from Azul and see what that does
for me.  I think I will swap the view card and memory back in to Azul and
try running the same database on Azul.  It is virtually identical to
Stonehenge.  It has a quad core AMD, 4 gigs of memory and an 8 disk raid
array on the same controller card that Stonehenge has.  I could also TRY to
do a dual boot to W2K3x64 but it currently boots off the raid which makes
installing the new OS difficult (adds the issue of x64 raid drivers at
install time).  F6, floppy and all that.  I hate that stuff. 

Well, more later.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 

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