Sybase 11.9.2 and Solaris 2.7
Heinz Ringlhofer
We are encountering the following problems using our base line tests
on Solaris 2.7:
If you install 11.9.2 on 2.7 (64-bit) Sybase puts the following
not documented (to my knowledge) line into the servername.cfg file:
##############################################################################
#
# Configuration File for the Sybase SQL Server
#
# Please read the System Administration Guide (SAG)
# before changing any of the values in this file.
#
##############################################################################
[Configuration Options]
[General Information]
[Installation is 64-bit]
Question:
What does 64-bit on the 11.9.2 server (32 bit) mean ??
In addition we found:
If you leave that in, ASCII bcp-out is much slower (from an older
client) compared to Sybase 11.5.1.
if you take this line out, bcp-out performs the same as 11.5.1 (only
from an older client).
In addition Solaris 2.7 (32 bit) and Sybase 11.9.2 (here you dont
get the 64-bit entry) peformance on bcp-out is always bad (looks like
a RAID driver problem Sun A3500 RAID).
Some more info:
Server version is 11.9.2 EBF 8139.
We know 11.9.2 is a 32 bit version. But why does it set the
[Installation is 64-bit] in the server.cfg file and bcp-out
runs much slower if this entry is active?
Any hints, pointers ???
> Heinz Ringlhofer, ZAMG Austria
Anthony Mandic
>
> We are encountering the following problems using our base line tests
> on Solaris 2.7:
You'd better toe the line with Sun's marketing department and
start calling it Solaris 7.
> If you install 11.9.2 on 2.7 (64-bit) Sybase puts the following
> not documented (to my knowledge) line into the servername.cfg file:
> [Installation is 64-bit]
>
> Question:
>
> What does 64-bit on the 11.9.2 server (32 bit) mean ??
You also get it with any 11.9.2 installation. Its part of
the config file. I gather it refers to the 11.9.3 code
line, which is drawn from 11.9.2.
> In addition we found:
>
> If you leave that in, ASCII bcp-out is much slower (from an older
> client) compared to Sybase 11.5.1.
>
> if you take this line out, bcp-out performs the same as 11.5.1 (only
> from an older client).
Well, that is curious. Of course, it never ceases to amaze me
what some people will try. You could try running strings over
the dataserver binary or the libraries to see if "Installation ..."
is actually used. Or, better yet, set it to something and truss
the process.
> In addition Solaris 2.7 (32 bit) and Sybase 11.9.2 (here you dont
> get the 64-bit entry) peformance on bcp-out is always bad (looks like
> a RAID driver problem Sun A3500 RAID).
I have the same line on Solaris 2.6 with 11.9.2. Are you sure
you don't get it on 32bit Solaris 7?
To check your bcp issues, try using native mode bcp out (it
may be a charset conversion problem) or run sp_sysmon. There
may be an EBF for bcp as well.
> Some more info:
>
> Server version is 11.9.2 EBF 8139.
I have EBF 8455 (ESD 6). There's a new EBF out now (EBF 8498,
ESD 7), but at 50MB+ I'm not in any hurry to download it (Damn!
I wish Sybase would take out the useless diag binaries!).
> We know 11.9.2 is a 32 bit version. But why does it set the
> [Installation is 64-bit] in the server.cfg file and bcp-out
> runs much slower if this entry is active?
>
> Any hints, pointers ???
Your guess is as good as mine. It may just be a fluke. Try a later
EBF and check for any bcp EBFs. Check your hardware too. You can
always try a select/into onto another device (or tempdb) and bcp
out from there and compare the performance.
-am
Heinz Ringlhofer
Thanks for the reply. We are still baseline-testing some of these
problems and i'll
put some more comments and experiences inot this mail:
Anthony Mandic wrote:
>
> Heinz Ringlhofer wrote:
> >
> > We are encountering the following problems using our base line tests
> > on Solaris 2.7:
>
> You'd better toe the line with Sun's marketing department and
> start calling it Solaris 7.
>
They call it themselves sometimes 2.7 over here (oldfashioned Austrians
;-) )....
> > If you install 11.9.2 on 2.7 (64-bit) Sybase puts the following
> > not documented (to my knowledge) line into the servername.cfg file:
>
> > [Installation is 64-bit]
> >
> > Question:
> >
> > What does 64-bit on the 11.9.2 server (32 bit) mean ??
>
> You also get it with any 11.9.2 installation. Its part of
> the config file. I gather it refers to the 11.9.3 code
> line, which is drawn from 11.9.2.
>
Not to my knowledge. If i start Solaris 7 (see i am learning ...) in
32-bit mode
i dont get it when i re-install Sybase from scratch (isalist shows
sparv8).
If i start Solaris 7 in 64-bit mode, isalist shows sparcv9.
> > In addition we found:
> >
> > If you leave that in, ASCII bcp-out is much slower (from an older
> > client) compared to Sybase 11.5.1.
> >
> > if you take this line out, bcp-out performs the same as 11.5.1 (only
> > from an older client).
>
> Well, that is curious. Of course, it never ceases to amaze me
> what some people will try. You could try running strings over
> the dataserver binary or the libraries to see if "Installation ..."
> is actually used. Or, better yet, set it to something and truss
> the process.
>
My statement that bcp-out is slower with installation is 64 bit might
not be
completely true (see below - whats new, propably did not do enough
tests)
> > In addition Solaris 2.7 (32 bit) and Sybase 11.9.2 (here you dont
> > get the 64-bit entry) peformance on bcp-out is always bad (looks like
> > a RAID driver problem Sun A3500 RAID).
>
> I have the same line on Solaris 2.6 with 11.9.2. Are you sure
> you don't get it on 32bit Solaris 7?
Dont get it, see above
> To check your bcp issues, try using native mode bcp out (it
> may be a charset conversion problem) or run sp_sysmon. There
> may be an EBF for bcp as well.
>
> > Some more info:
> >
> > Server version is 11.9.2 EBF 8139.
>
> I have EBF 8455 (ESD 6). There's a new EBF out now (EBF 8498,
> ESD 7), but at 50MB+ I'm not in any hurry to download it (Damn!
> I wish Sybase would take out the useless diag binaries!).
>
> > We know 11.9.2 is a 32 bit version. But why does it set the
> > [Installation is 64-bit] in the server.cfg file and bcp-out
> > runs much slower if this entry is active?
> >
> > Any hints, pointers ???
>
> Your guess is as good as mine. It may just be a fluke. Try a later
> EBF and check for any bcp EBFs. Check your hardware too. You can
> always try a select/into onto another device (or tempdb) and bcp
> out from there and compare the performance.
>
Whats new:
We have the nearly newest Sybase EBF installed (ESD 6).
We made base-line tests on Solaris 7, Sybase 11.9.2 with the same client
as
we have on the 11.5.1 system. The performance for bcp-out is erratic.
Performance (compared to an identical system, Solaris 2.6, Sybase
11.5.1) is:
Test Number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Performance Factor: 1 1 1 2 46 42 9 1
Other tests (isql, bcp-in, etc) dont show this variation.
We are using 3 CPU's for Sybase, 1 for Solaris (no tuning parameters
set).
Sybase is restarted after each test.
Who knows whats going on ???
Anthony Mandic
> They call it themselves sometimes 2.7 over here (oldfashioned Austrians
> ;-) )....
Hmmm ... all the printed Solaris docs that came with my copies
say Solaris 7. But this is the English version. Is the Austrian
version different in this respect?
> > You also get it with any 11.9.2 installation. Its part of
> > the config file. I gather it refers to the 11.9.3 code
> > line, which is drawn from 11.9.2.
> >
>
> Not to my knowledge. If i start Solaris 7 (see i am learning ...) in
> 32-bit mode i dont get it when i re-install Sybase from scratch (isalist
> shows sparv8). If i start Solaris 7 in 64-bit mode, isalist shows sparcv9.
Interesting. I have it on Solaris 2.6 - which is only 32bit. It
could be doing a specific test for Solaris 7 and 64bit.
> Whats new:
>
> We have the nearly newest Sybase EBF installed (ESD 6).
>
> We made base-line tests on Solaris 7, Sybase 11.9.2 with the same client
> as we have on the 11.5.1 system. The performance for bcp-out is erratic.
>
> Performance (compared to an identical system, Solaris 2.6, Sybase
> 11.5.1) is:
>
> Test Number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
>
> Performance Factor: 1 1 1 2 46 42 9 1
>
> Other tests (isql, bcp-in, etc) dont show this variation.
>
> We are using 3 CPU's for Sybase, 1 for Solaris (no tuning parameters
> set). Sybase is restarted after each test.
>
> Who knows whats going on ???
Its hard to say without knowing the design of your system. The
fact that you restart Sybase is interesting. Basically, this
means that the data cache is empty and table data needs to be
read from disk. You could run the Sybase Monitor Server to
monitor Sybase performance (although sp_sysmon should be good
enough. You can compare its output against the other tests and
against the other system). You might also want to monitor
Solaris's performance, in particular the disks. Run iostat for
this. Since tests 5 and 6 show the most dramatic difference
you would only need to concentrate on either one of these.
Another test you might want to do is run Solaris in both 32bit
and 64bit mode and compare the performance there as well.
-am