[dba-SQLServer] Comparative timings

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Thu Nov 4 08:50:13 CDT 2010


LOL, of course not.  ;)  It did appear to notice the memory changes, i.e. I could watch the memory 
used rise and fall out in task manager as SQL Server grabbed and released the memory.

I no longer use stored procedures btw, all of this stuff was directly executing a view - select * 
from vCntXyZ in a query window.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

On 11/4/2010 9:39 AM, Francisco Tapia wrote:
> John,
>    Just curious but did you shut down the instance after each change or clear
> the buffers and cache to ensure proper benchmarking?
>
> You can clear the cache by running DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS,  Then run DBCC
> FREEPROCCACHE, which clears the stored procedure cache.
>
> -Francisco
> http://bit.ly/sqlthis   | Tsql and More...
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 6:22 PM, jwcolby<jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>  wrote:
>
>> I am processing an order for the client that i built this server for.  One
>> of the steps is to count
>> the available records.
>>
>> The task, select 640K records from two related tables, 65 million names /
>> addresses joined to 50
>> million records of demographics (the database from hell). Filter down to
>> (male, high income, young)
>> and (has kids or mail order buyers).  The selection views return full name
>> / address plus selection
>> fields.
>>
>> Both tables have a clustered index on integer PK.  The tables are joined on
>> PK/FK (the key of the
>> clustered index).  Cover indexes on the selection fields.  The tables are
>> in separate databases,
>> both databases on the same SSD (2 drive raid 0).  The count simply counts
>> the PKID of the selection
>> view.
>>
>> The server was configured with 6 of 8 cores available to SQL Server and 24
>> gigs of RAM.  The count
>> ran consistently around 0:1:55 (one minute 55 secs).  The system was only
>> running the 6 cores around
>> 20% -25% of capacity.
>>
>> I cut the processors assigned to 3 of 8 and reran the same count.  The
>> three assigned processors ran
>> about 80% of capacity, but several of the processors not assigned to SQL
>> Server also ran something,
>> averaging about 30-40% of capacity.  The time to do the count was about
>> 3:36.
>>
>> I then cut the memory assigned to SQL Server to 12 gigs with 3 cores
>> assigned.  Again, the
>> processors ran very similar to the last run, the three assigned to SQL
>> Server ran around 60-80% but
>> a couple of the other cores not assigned also did something significant -
>> 30-40%.  The time to do
>> the count was 2:06.
>>
>> I then assigned 6 processors but 12 gigs of memory.  The 6 processors
>> assigned averaged around 80%
>> for much of the time, but the total time was 1:53.
>>
>> I then jacked the memory back up to 24 gigs / 6 processors.  Average core
>> utilization dropped, the
>> total time was 2:01.
>>
>> Just to see if it was an anomaly I dropped back down to 3 procs with 24
>> gigs of memory.  4:00 to
>> process the count.
>>
>> And finally back to 12 gigs and 3 procs.  2:00
>>
>> So 12 gigs and 3 cores produced equivalent results to 6 cores and 24 gigs
>> (which I find fascinating
>> and disturbing).  3 cores and 24 gigs put on a very poor show.
>>
>> And of course this test did not have the server doing anything else.
>>
>> I had intended to run a VM on the server though I am changing my mind.  In
>> preliminary tests, the vm
>> did not perform as well as on the previous server.  I believe it is
>> probably a simple matter of
>> clock speed.  This server has 8 cores but they are clocked at 2 gigs.  My
>> previous server had only 4
>> cores but they were clocked at 3.2 gigs.  The VM has always shown the best
>> results with a single
>> core and if the core is faster...
>>
>> So I will likely rebuild a server to just hold the vm.
>>
>> --
>> John W. Colby
>> www.ColbyConsulting.com
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>>
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