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From: tim@binky.sybase.com (Tim Wood)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Performance Data (was Re: Client/Server processes and implementations)
Message-ID: <7277@sybase.sybase.com>
Date: 30 Nov 89 18:15:43 GMT
References: <7169@sybase.sybase.com> <13520004@hpisod2.HP.COM>
Sender: news@sybase.sybase.com
Reply-To: tim@binky.UUCP (Tim Wood)
Organization: Sybase, Inc.
Lines: 38

In article <13520004@hpisod2.HP.COM> dhepner@hpisod2.HP.COM (Dan Hepner) writes:
>From: hargrove@harlie.sgi.com (Mark Hargrove)
>>
>>The client and server don't have to run on the same machine.  In fact,
>>as Jon Forrest (correctly) points out, in the general case, you don't
>>*want* them to run on the same machine [...]
>>(and in the extreme (and not at all impractical) case, you run each 
>> client and each server on its own machine).  This model is simple, 
>> elegant, and fundamentally right.
>
>This would require basically a 50-50 split of the workload between
>the client and server. A practical assumption? 
> 

This seems a bit simplistic.  Database servers and client applications
do fundamentally different kinds of work.  Assuming an update-intensive 
workload, the server should try to keep the disks and the client connections 
busy.  That is, as the volume of requests rises, the I/O activity, and
commit rate, should rise linearly up to the saturation level of the I/O
system.  To speed up an I/O-saturated system, you add more I/O bandwidth.  
Conversely, if the CPU can't keep the disks busy under heavy workload,
you need a faster CPU (or a different DBMS :-).

The client side is concerned with very different issues, like window 
refresh strategies, presentation styles and local data analysis.  
All those things are very CPU-intensive.  

So, the different character of the client and server workloads makes
comparing them a case of apples vs. oranges, and underlines the 
benefit in client/server: each party in the relationship does a
few things well.
-TW


Sybase, Inc. / 6475 Christie Ave. / Emeryville, CA / 94608	  415-596-3500
tim@sybase.com          {pacbell,pyramid,sun,{uunet,ucbvax}!mtxinu}!sybase!tim
		This message is solely my personal opinion.
		It is not a representation of Sybase, Inc.  OK.


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