Accelerating Databases with the Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array 
by Jeffrey T. Wright
November 2009
The Sun™ Storage F5100 Flash Array is an innovation in storage technology, delivering the low latency and high I/O bandwidth characteristic of flash media to meet the storage requirements of modern databases.
This Sun BluePrints™ article shows how to apply the Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array as storage for database indexes in order to accelerate application performance. Storing indexes on flash storage can improve performance in two ways:
- Given a fixed workload, indexes on flash storage can reduce application response time
- Given a fixed desired response time, indexes on flash storage can increase the maximum supportable workload
This Sun BluePrints article includes practical examples of storage systems augmented with the Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array for index storage. The architecture described here offers a practical balance of performance and capacity for cost-constrained online transaction processing (OLTP) and very large database (VLDB) applications.
Contents
- Introduction
- Overview of the Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array
- Performance and Data Access Characteristics
- Practical Implementation Considerations
- Reference Architecture
- Small Configuration Example
- Large Configuration Example
- System Performance Testing
- Method
- Client-Side New Order Response Time vs. New Order Rate
- Oracle® Tablespace I/O Read Service Time vs. I/O Rate
- Scaling to Larger Systems
- Read Service Time vs. Workload per Sun Flash Module
- Index Read Service Time vs. Storage Workload
- Conclusions
- Appendix: System Tuning
- Operating System Tuning for the Solaris™ OS
- Storage Software and Configuration
- Oracle Database Configuration
- Appendix: Configuring Disk Layout
- SPARC-based Systems
- x86-based Systems
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- References
- Ordering Sun Documents
- Accessing Sun Documentation Online
Jeff Wright works in the Application Integration Engineering (AIE) group in Sun's Open Storage Organization. Jeff remains obsessed with performance topics involving Oracle and data storage technologies from product conception to final delivery. His recent focus has been on developing Open Storage for database systems. Prior to joining Sun in 1997 through the StorageTek acquisition, Jeff worked as systems test engineer for disk storage products. His early career experiences in automotive manufacturing,software development,and experimental physics shaped his unique approach and perspectives on assessing storage performance and designing storage architectures for database systems.
The author would like to recognize Lisa Noordergraaf for her contributions to this article.
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