Comprehending the Tradeoffs

between Deploying Oracle Database on RAID 5 and RAID 10 Storage Configurations

ADellTechnicalWhitePaper

Database Solutions Engineering

By Sudhansu Sekhar and Raghunatha M Dell Product Group April 2009

UsingRAID10ComparedtoRAID5ConfigurationsforOracleDatabaseDeploymentsTradeoffs

ExecutiveSummary
RedundantArrayofIndependentDisks(RAID)technologyisusedtoimproveperformanceand availabilityoftheunderlyingstoragearraysforanyapplication.WithRAIDimplementations, performanceisimprovedbydistributingI/Oacrossmanyphysicaldisksandavailabilityisincreasedwith thedatarebuildingcapability.Butbothhighavailabilityandhighperformancecomesataprice,which aredifferentfordifferentRAIDimplementations. Mostofthetimedatabaseandstorageadministratorsasktheageoldquestionwhethertogowith RAID10orRAID5fortheirdatabasedeployment.Customersstruggletomakerighttradeoffsbetween thesetwoRAIDimplementationsfortheirdatabasedeployments.Thiswhitepaperevaluatesdifferent tradeoffsincludingperformance,cost,andavailabilitywhileevaluatingRAID10comparedtoRAID5. ThiswillhelpthecustomerstomakeinformeddecisionstochoosetherightRAIDimplementationfor theirspecificworkloadwhichcanmeettheirdesiredperformanceandavailabilityrequirements. THISWHITEPAPERISFORINFORMATIONALPURPOSESONLY,ANDMAYCONTAINTYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORSANDTECHNICALINACCURACIES.THECONTENTISPROVIDEDASIS,WITHOUTEXPRESSOR IMPLIEDWARRANTIESOFANYKIND. 2009DellInc.Allrightsreserved.Reproductionofthismaterialinanymannerwhatsoeverwithout theexpresswrittenpermissionofDellInc.isstrictlyforbidden.Formoreinformation,contactDell. Dell,theDELLlogo,andtheDELLbadgearetrademarksofDellInc.EMCisaregisteredtrademarkof EMCintheUnitedStatesand/orothercountries.OracleandRACareregisteredtrademarksofOraclein theUnitedStatesand/orothercountries. Othertrademarksandtradenamesmaybeusedinthisdocumenttorefertoeithertheentitiesclaiming themarksandnamesortheirproducts.Delldisclaimsproprietaryinterestinthemarksandnamesof others.

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Contents
ExecutiveSummary...................................................................................................................................ii Introduction..............................................................................................................................................4 OverviewofRAID......................................................................................................................................4 RAIDImplementationinDell/EMCStorageArrays............................................................................5 RAIDTradeoffs..........................................................................................................................................5 PerformanceTradeoffRAID10ComparedtoRAID5..........................................................................6 TestConfiguration ................................................................................................................................6 . TestCases .............................................................................................................................................6 . OLTPWorkload.....................................................................................................................................6 ResultsandAnalysis..............................................................................................................................7 OLAPWorkload.....................................................................................................................................9 ResultsandAnalysis..............................................................................................................................9 CostTradeoffRAID10ComparedtoRAID5......................................................................................11 TestConfigurations.............................................................................................................................11 TestCases ...........................................................................................................................................12 . ResultsandAnalysis............................................................................................................................12 AvailabilityTradeoffRAID10comparedtoRAID5..............................................................................14 TestConfigurations.............................................................................................................................14 TestCases ...........................................................................................................................................14 . ResultsandAnalysis............................................................................................................................14 FourQuadrantAnalysis...........................................................................................................................15 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................18 GLOSSARY ...............................................................................................................................................19 . References..............................................................................................................................................21

UsingRAID10ComparedtoRAID5ConfigurationsforOracleDatabaseDeploymentsTradeoffs

Introduction
Configurationoftheunderlyingstoragesubsystemisoneofthemostcriticaltaskswhiledeploying applications.ForI/OintensiveapplicationslikeOracleDatabases,thestorageconfigurationcanbe extremelycomplex.Storageanddatabaseadministratorsneedtocomprehendseveralperformance criteriawhileconsideringthestoragedesign.Someoftheimportantstorageoptionsthatneedcareful attentionareRAIDconfigurations,cacheconfigurations,disktypes,andsoon.Ofthese,onetopicof debateistheRAIDconfigurationforstoragearrays. Fromaperformanceperspective,RAID10isclaimedtobetheidealRAIDchoicefordatabase deployments.However,customerssometimeshavetomakecosttradeoffs,whichforcethemaway fromRAID10andleadthemtochoosethemorecosteffectiveRAID5configuration. BothRAID10andRAID5configurationshaveadvantagesanddisadvantagesandaresuitableforspecific I/Opatterns.ThiswhitepaperprovidesrecommendationsonusingRAID10andRAID5fordifferent databaseworkloads.Thispaperalsoexaminesseveraltradeoffs(forexample,performancetradeoff, costtradeoff,andavailabilitytradeoff)whiledeployingOracleDatabaseswithRAID10comparedto RAID5.AfourquadrantanalysiswasprovidedtohelpcustomerstochoosetheRAIDconfigurationsfor databaseswithmixedusedeployment,wherecustomersrunonlinetransactionprocessing(OLTP) duringthedayandDSSworkloadatnight.Thiswillhelpthedatabaseandstorageadministratorsto makeaninformeddecisionwhenplanningtheircomplexdatabasedeployments. OracleDatabasehasseveralcomponentsandeachofthesecomponentscanhavedifferentI/Opatterns. Componentslikeonlineredologs,controlfiles,tempandundotablespacesarewriteintensive.Onthe otherhand,datafilesforOracleDatabasecanbereadorwriteintensive,dependingonthetypeof applicationwhichisaccessingthedatabase.Asaresult,differentRAIDtechnologiescanbeappropriate fordifferentdatabasecomponents.Customerscanevenmixandmatchconfigurationsfortheir databasedeploymentbyplacingdifferentcomponentsofOracleDatabaseindifferentRAIDgroups. Thesetypesofconfigurationsareanalyzed,andrecommendationsareprovidedinthiswhitepaper.

OverviewofRAID
TheobjectiveoftheRAIDtechnologyistoaccomplishthefollowinggoals: 1. Improvethediskread/writeperformance(byparallelizingtheI/Oovermultipledisks) 2. Improveredundancy(byintroducingdatarecoverycapabilityintheeventofdiskfailure) SeveralRAIDtechnologiesareavailabletoachievebetterdiskperformanceanddataredundancy.Below arethemostcommonlyusedRAIDconfigurationsusedfortheimplementationofOracleDatabase: RAID10(alsoknownasstripeandmirror)ThistechniqueisamixofRAID1(whichis mirroring)andRAID0(whichisstriping).WithRAID10,dataisspreadacrossmultipledisks(to

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improveperformance),andthestripeddataismirroredasadifferentdataset(toprovide redundancy). RAID5Theimplementationofamathematicalexclusiveor(XOR)isamethodthatusesparity toreconstructdatafromafaileddrive.RAID5doesnotmirrorthewholesetofdatatobuild redundancyintothesetup.Dataisstripedacrossallthediskstoalsoimprovetheperformance inRAID5.

RAIDImplementationinDell/EMCStorageArrays DifferentstoragevendorsimplementedtheRAIDtechnologiesinseveralways.Belowisthedescription onthewayRAID10andRAID5areimplementedinDell/EMCstoragearrays. ForDell/EMCstoragearrays,RAID10takescareofbothdatastripingandmirroring.First,thedatais stripedacrossallthedisksintheRAIDgroup.ThisensurestheoptimumperformancefortheRAID configuration.Oncethedataisstripedacrossallthedisks,thedatasetsgetmirroredinsidethe availablediskstocreatetheredundantcopies. Foroptimalredundancy,EMCrecommendstoconfiguretheRAID5witha3+1configuration.Witha3+1 configuration,onediskisusedforstoringparitydataforeverythreedisksthatareusedintheRAID configuration.Forstoragesystems,RAID5canbeimplementedwith3to16diskRAIDgroups.But considerationsshouldbetakenwhileselectingthenumberofdisksfortheRAIDgroup.Thelargerthe sizeoftheRAIDgroup,themoretimeittakestorebuildthedataintheeventofadiskfailure.

RAIDTradeoffs
Asdiscussedintheprevioussection,RAIDimplementationsimproveperformanceandredundancy. However,performanceimprovementandredundancycomewithcostasalargeramountofdisksis required,forexample: Forthesamesizeofdatabase,RAID10requiresmoredisksthanRAID5toachievethedesired dataavailability. RAID5requiresmoretimetoreconstructthefaileddataincaseofdiskfailure. RAID5hastodealwithparityoverheadfordiskwrites.

CustomersneedtoconsiderthefollowingtradeoffsbeforeimplementingaparticularRAIDtechnology: Performancetradeoff theperformancebenefitofpreferringRAID10toRAID5withthe desiredI/Opattern CosttradeoffthecostbenefitofeitherRAID10orRAID5implementation Availabilitytradeofftheamountoftimerequiredtorecoverdatafromafaileddiskscenario

ThefollowingsectionsdiscusstheaboveconsiderationsinthecontextofOracleDatabasedeployedon RAID10comparetoRAID5configurations.

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PerformanceTradeoffRAID10ComparedtoRAID5
ThissectionprovidestheperformanceanalysisforbothRAID10andRAID5configurationsfordifferent databaseworkloadsandI/Opatterns.Theanalysiscanbeusedfordeterminingtheperformance tradeoffsbetweenRAID10andRAID5implementationsfordifferentdatabaseworkloads. TestConfiguration Fortheperformancetradeofftest,twoOracle11GR1(11.1.0.7)twonodeRACclustersweredeployed. OneRACclusterwasdeployedwithRAID10layoutandtheotherclusterwithRAID5layout.Bothofthe RAID10andRAID5wascreatedfromeightdisks.Thefollowinghardwareandsoftwarecomponents wereusedforthesetwoclusters: Hardware Components Server Storage FCswitch Networkswitch Software Operatingsystem OracleRDBMS(withRAC) EMCPowerPath Database Databasesize BenchmarkTools QuestBenchmark Factory(OLTPworkloads) ORION(OLAPworkload) RAID10andRAID5 2xR710 CX4480 BrocadeSW5000 DellPowerConnect5448 RHEL5.2 EE11GR1(11.1.0.7) V5.1.0 400GB V5.5.1 10.2

TestCases Thetestcasesweredividedintotwomajorcategories,OLTPworkloadsandOnLineAnalytical Processing(OLAP)workloads: OLTPWorkload QuestBenchmarkFactoryhasaframeworkwhichprovidesindustrystandardTPCCperformanceruns. QuestBenchmarkFactoryTPCCworkloadisdesignedforonlinetransactionprocessingenvironment withmorereads(70%)andlesswrites(30%).AspartofTPCCperformancerun,thedatabasewas

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loadedwith400GBofdata.Transactionswerecarriedoutwithincreasinguserloads.Theperformance statisticswerecollectedforeachoftheuserloads. ResultsandAnalysis ForanOLTPworkload,performanceistypicallymeasuredintermsoftransactionspersecond(TPS)and theresponsetime.Fromaperformanceprospective,thedatabaseshouldbeabletomeettheTPS requirementwithinpermissibleresponsetime. QuestBenchmarkFactoryTPCCgeneratedthetransactionsforthedatabase.Thetransactionsper secondandtheresponsetimemetricsarecapturedforboththeRAID10andtheRAID5configurations. Figure1providestheTPSwithvaryinguserloads,andFigure2providestheresponsetimeanalysisfor varyinguserloadsforboththeRAID10andtheRAID5configurations.
70 60 50 40 TPS 30 20 10 0 TPSRAID10 TPSRAID5

TransactionPerSeconds(TPS)Vs.UserLoad

Userload

Figure1:TransactionsperSecond(TPS)AnalysisRAID10ComparedtoRAID5

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12 10 8 Response 6 time(ms) 4 2 0 Userload AvgResponseTime RAID10 AvgResponseTime RAID5

ResponseTimeVs.UserLoad

Figure2:ResponseTimeAnalysisRAID10ComparedtoRAID5 FromFigure1,wecanobservethatboththeRAIDconfigurationscouldprovidethesameTPSaroundthe 900userloadmarks.Butbeyondtheloadgeneratedby900usersinthisspecificbenchmark,theRAID5 clusterisnotabletokeeppacewithRAID10cluster. TheresponsetimeanalysisprovidesasimilartrendfortheRAID10andtheRAID5clusters.Response timeisthetimeelapsedfortheSQLroundtrip,inotherwords,thetimeelapsedfromthetimethe BenchmarkFactoryclientsubmitstheSQL,tothetimeatwhichtheclientgetstheresponse.Fromthe responsetimeplot(Figure2),wecanobservethattheresponsetimeincreasessignificantlyafterthe 900userloadmarkforRAID5cluster.Aswecansee,theresponsetimeexceeds2msbeyond900user loadsfortheRAID5configuration,whiletheRAID10configurationprovidesresponsetimebelow2ms upto1100userloads. Asaresult,forOLTPworkloads(loadswithroughlya70/30readtowriteratio),theRAID5performance canmatchtheRAID10configurationuptoacertainuserload.BeyondthatRAID10performanceis betterthanthatofRAID5configuration.Inotherwords,RAID10willprovidebetterTPSwithless responsetimecomparedtoRAID5configurationbeyondcertainuserload.Thisbehaviorisexpected becauseoftheparitywritepenaltyassociated(forwriteactivities)withRAID5. Forlightlyloadeddatabaseswithverylowreadandwriteworkloads,theperformancedegradationmay notbenoticedfortheRAID5configuration.Inotherwords,bothRAID10andRAID5maybeusedto deploylightlyloadeddatabases.Inthisscenario,theparitywritepenaltywillbelessbecauseofthelight workload.

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OLAPWorkload ORIONwasusedtosimulatetheonlineanalyticalprocessing(OLAP)workload.OLAPworkloadsoften comprisefulltablescans,longrunningreports,andbackupjobs.Additionally,theI/OsizeofOLAPis muchlargercomparedtoOLTP,mostlyintherangeof1MB.Consequently,thecharacteristicofthe overalldatathroughput(measuredinMegabytespersecond)isofinterestforthesetypesofworkloads. Databaseswerestressedwithbothlargesequentialreadandlargesequentialwriteoperations.Also,the readandwriteratiowasvariedtoanalyzethethroughputbehaviorwithvaryingqueuelength. ResultsandAnalysis WithORION,theI/Othroughputswerecapturedforlargesequentialwritesandlargesequential readswith1MBofI/Osize.ThethroughputwascomparedforboththeRAID10andRAID5 configurations.

ThroughputVs.OutstandingIOs LargeSequentialWrites
140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

MBps

Raid5_Writes Raid10_Writes

NumberofOutstandingIOs

Figure3:ThroughputAnalysisforLargeSequentialWritesRAID10ComparedtoRaid5 Figure3providesacomparativeanalysisofthethroughputforlargesequentialwritesforRAID10and RAID5configurations.TheXaxisrepresentsthenumberofoutstandingI/OsandtheYaxisrepresents thethroughputinMBps.Aswecanobserve,theRAID10throughputoutperformstheRAID5 configurationforlargesequentialwrites.Thisbehaviorisexpectedbecauseoftheparitywritepenalty associatedwiththeRAID5configuration.

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ThroughputVs.OutstandingIOs LargeSequentialReads
250 200 MBps 150 100 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Raid5 Raid10

NumberofOutstandingIOs

Figure4:ThroughputAnalysisforLargeSequentialReadsRAID10ComparedtoRaid5 Figure4providesacomparativeanalysisofthethroughputforlargesequentialreadsforRAID10and RAID5configurations.TheXaxisrepresentsthenumberofoutstandingI/OsandYaxisrepresentsthe throughputinMBps.Aswecanobserve,theRAID5configurationcanmatchtheRAID10configuration forlargesequentialreads.Theobservedpatternisexpected,giventhatthereisnoparitywritepenalty associatedwiththeRAID5configurationforreadoperations. Asmentionedearlier,thereadandwriteratiowasvariedtoanalyzethethroughputvariationswith differentworkloads.Foranyparticularreadandwriteratio(e.g.10%Read+90%Write),the throughputwascapturedbothforRAID10andRAID5configurations.Itwasobservedthatforallread andwritemix,RAID10configurationgivesabetterthroughputcomparedtoRAID5configuration.The percentageofthroughputincreasewascalculatedforeachofthesereadandwritemixesandplottedas showninFigure5.TheXaxishasthedatapointforthedifferentreadandwritemixes(forexample, 0R+100Windicates0%readand100%write,10R+90Windicates10%readand90%Write,andsoon) andtheYaxishasthedatapointforthepercentageofthroughputincreasefortheRAID10 configurationcomparedtotheRAID5configuration.

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%ThroughputIncreaseforRAID10OverRAID5
45 40 35 30 %Througput 25 20 Increase 15 10 5 0

%MBPsIncreaseforRAID10 overRAID5

Read+WriteMix

Figure5:ThroughputanalysisforReadandwriteWorkloadMix AswecanseefromFigure5,thepercentageofthroughputgainofRAID10overRAID5increaseswitha higherpercentageofwriteoperations.ThethroughputgainforRAID10configurationsvariesfroma minimumof12%(for0%write)toamaximumof45%(for100%write).Itisnecessarytonotethatthese maximumandminimumvaluescanvarydependingupontheread/writecacheconfigurationforthe storagearrays.However,theoverallrecommendation(fromtheanalysisofFigure5)isthatcustomers maychoosetodeployRAID5(withminimalperformanceimpact),iftheirapplicationismostlyread intensive.Incontrast,foreverywriteintensiveapplication,RAID10isrecommendedforbetter performance.

CostTradeoffRAID10ComparedtoRAID5
ThissectionprovidesthecostbenefitanalysisforbothRAID10andRAID5implementations.Because RAID5implementationsprovidemoreusablespacecomparedtoRAID10implementations,thissection assistsintheanalysisofstoragespaceandtounderstandthecostbenefitswhileimplementingRAID5. TestConfigurations Followingarethedetailsofthestoragearrayandthedisksusedforthecosttradeoffanalysis. Hardware Components Storage Harddisk Details CX4480 300GB(RAWspace) 265GB(Usablespace)

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TestCases Todeterminethecosttradeoff,twoseparateRAIDgroupswerecreatedwithRAID10andRAID5layout. ForbothRAID10andRAID5RAIDgroups,theusablespacewasdetermined.Thepercentageofspace gainedforRAID10comparedtoRAID5wascalculatedfortheanalysis. Theabovestepswererepeatedforsetsoffour,eight,and16disks,andthetrendanalysiswasdonefor thecosttradeoff. ResultsandAnalysis ThefollowingtableoutlinesthedetailsofusablespaceforRAID10andRAID5implementationswith differentsetsofdisks. No.of Disks 4 8 16
TableLegend

DiskSize (GB) 300 300 300

TotalCapacity (GB) 1073 2147 4294

RAID5UsableSpace (GB) 805 1878 4025

RAID10UsableSpace (GB) 536 1073 2146

DisksNumberofdisksusedintheRAIDconfiguration TotalCapacityRawdiskcapacity(diskcapacitynumberofdisks) RAID5UsableSpaceUsablediskspaceaftercreatingRAID5 RAID10UsableSpaceUsablediskspaceaftercreatingRAID10 Figure6providesthedatafortheusablespace(forbothRAID10andRAID5)thatthecustomercan achievebyincreasingthenumberofdisks.Figure7depictsthetrendofincreaseinusablespacefor RAID5overRAID10whenincreasingthenumberofdiskdrives.

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UsableSpace RAID10ComparedtoRAID5
4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 Usable Space(GB) 2000 1500 1000 500 0 4 8 Numberofdisks 16

RAID5_UsableSpace RAID10_UsableSpace

Figure6:UsableSpaceAnalysisRAID10ComparedtoRAID5

%UsableSpaceGainforRAID5OverRAID10
100 80 %Usable SpaceGain 60 40 %UsableSpaceGainforRAID5 20 0 4 8 Numberofdisks 16

Figure7:UsableSpaceGainforRAID5overRAID10 ComparingFigures6and7,theusablespaceforRAID5configurationsissignificantlyhigherthanforthe RAID10configurations.UsablespaceforRAID5increasesfurtherwhenincreasingthenumberofdisks usedintheRAIDlayout.Henceforcustomerswhosedatabaseperformanceisnotparamount,optingfor RAID5deploymentsisavalidtradeoff.AlthoughRAID10oftenoutperformsRAID5inreadandwrite workloads,RAID5maymatchtheRAID10performanceincaseswheretheapplicationisreadintensive

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orwithminimalwrite.Insuchcases,RAID5providescustomerswithagreatercostbenefitthanthe moreexpensiveRAID10option.

AvailabilityTradeoffRAID10ComparedtoRAID5
ThissectionexaminestheavailabilityanalysisforRAID10andRAID5implementations,providingan estimateonhowlongthesystemmaytaketorecoverorrebuildthedataintheeventofadiskfailure. TestConfigurations TwoOracle11gR1(11.1.0.7)twonodeRACclustersweredeployed.OneRACclusterwasdeployedwith aRAID10layoutandtheotherclusterwasdeployedwithaRAID5layout.Thehardwareandsoftware componentsforthetestwereidenticaltotheperformancetradeofftest. Thedifferencewasthewaythediskswerelaidoutforthedatabase.Eightphysicaldiskswereusedfor theRAID10configurationandfivephysicalspindleswereusedfortheRAID5configuration.Wewere abletocreatethesameamountofusablespacewitheightdisksforRAID10configurationsandfive disksforRAID5configurations.Theintentwastoloadsameamountofdataforbothconfigurationsand tomonitortheamountoftimeittakesforthesystemtorecoverfromadiskfailure. TestCases Todeterminehowthesystembehavesandrecoversincaseofadiskfailure,bothdatabaseswere loadedwith400GBofdata.ThentheTPCCtransactionwasstartedforbothdatabasesusingQuest BenchmarkFactory.Whilethetransactionswereinprogress,onediskwasremovedfromeach configurationandthedatarebuildtimewasmonitoredforboththeconfigurations. ResultsandAnalysis TheNavisphereGUIprovidesrealtimemonitoringofthedatarebuildprocess.Afterremovingonedisk drive,thedatarebuildingwasmonitoredforboththeRAID10configurationandtheRAID5 configuration.ThefollowingtableshowsthepercentageoflongerrebuildtimeforRAID5comparedto RAID10,takenbythearrayduringdatarebuildprocess.Itneedstobenotedthatthesetestswere performedwiththeRebuildPrioritysettoHIGH. Rebuild(%) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

%LongerRebuildTimeforRAID5ComparedtoRAID10 0% 35% 37% 25% 20% 20% 18%

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70 80 90 100

18% 20% 20% 24%

TheRAID10configurationcanrecoverfasterthantheRAID5configuration.FortheRAID10 configuration,thedatawasspreadacrossalleightdisks,andthenthedatasetwasmirrored.Forthe RAID5configuration,thedatawasspreadacrossallfivediskswiththeparity.Theabovedatarebuilding trendisexpectedbecausetheparitycalculationfordatarebuildwithRAID5takesmoretime.Fromthe tableabove,wecanseethatdatarebuildingwithRAID10maybe18%to37%fastercomparedtothat oftheRAID5configurationintheeventofasinglediskfailure. Bothofthesedatarebuildingtasksarenondestructiveinnature.TheTPCCrunscontinuedtorun duringthisrebuildingprocess,buttheperformanceimpactwasnotanalyzedduringthisdatarebuilding process. OneimportantavailabilitydifferencebetweentheRAID10andRAID5configurationsisthattheRAID10 configurationcansurvivemorethanonediskfailure,whereasRAID5cantolerateonlyasingledisk failure.WithaRAID10configurationwitheightphysicaldisks,thesystemcansurvivewithasmanyas fourdiskfailures(withoutanydataloss),whereaswithaRAID5configurationwitheightdisks,the systemcansurvivewithonlyonediskfailure,inotherwords,RAID5cannotrebuildthedatawithparity whenmorethanonediskfails.

FourQuadrantAnalysis
ThefourquadrantanalysiscanbeusedtodeterminetherecommendedRAIDfordifferenttypesof workloadsanddatabasesizes.Thisanalysisisparticularlyusefulfordatabaseswithmixeduse deployment,wherecustomersrunOLTPduringthedayandDSSworkloadatnight.Inthebelowchart, theXaxisrepresentsthedatabasesize,andtheYaxisrepresentsthetypeofworkload.Thedatabase sizecanvaryfromsmalltolarge.Theworkloadcanvaryfrom100%OLTPto100%DSS.Thecombination ofdatabasesizeandworkloadwilldecideintowhichquadrantthecustomerrequirementfalls.For example,inthecaseofalargedatabasesizewith100%OLTPworkload,therequirementfallsintoQ1. Basedonourfindings,Figure8providestherecommendedRAIDtypesfordifferentquadrants.

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Figure8:FourQuadrantAnalysisRAIDRecommendationforMixedUseDatabaseDeployments Quadrant1:LargeDatabaseSizeandOLTPWorkload Performanceandnondegradeuptimearethekeyconsiderationsinthisquadrant.Aswediscussed earlier,RAID10isalwaysthebestoptionforthisquadrant. Quadrant2:SmallDatabaseSizeandOLTPWorkload Performanceandnondegradeduptimearethekeyconsiderationsinthisquadrantaswell.Becauseof thesmalldatabasesize,thecustomermaynotreallyhaveahugecostbenefitifchoosingRAID5.For thisquadrant,althoughRAID5canworkfineforthecustomer,RAID10isrecommended. Quadrant3:SmallDatabaseSizeandDSSWorkload Becauseofthesmalldatabasesize,thecustomermaynothavealargecostbenefitifchoosingRAID5. Forthisquadrant,althoughRAID5canworkfineforthecustomer,RAID10isrecommended. Quadrant4:LargeDatabaseSizeandDSSWorkload

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ForDSSworkloads,themajordisadvantageistheperformancebottleneckindataloading.Mostofthe time,thecustomerhasalimitedwindowtocompletethedataloading.Ifthedataloadingactivityfits intotheallocatedwindow,RAID5canbebestfitforthisquadrant. ARAIDtyperecommendationforQuadrant4needsfurtheranalysis,becausetheDSSworkloadcanbea mixofreadandwriteactivities.Foramixeddatabaseusagescenario,databasesareusedforread intensivequeriesduringdaytimeandforwriteintensivedataloadatnight.TheDSSdataloadactivity canvaryfromlighttoheavy.Figure9depictstheRAIDtyperecommendationsfordifferentreadand writeworkloadmixes.TheXaxisrepresentsthedatabasesize,andtheYaxisrepresentstheworkload mix.

Figure9:RAIDRecommendationforReadandWriteDSSWorkloadMixes Themajorconsiderationwhendesigningthedatabaseformixeduseisthewindowfordataload.The dataloadshouldbecompletedwithinthetimespecified,sothatitdoesnotimpactthedatabaseread operations.Inotherwords,theRAIDconfigurationshouldbeabletomeettheDSSdataloading performancerequirements.Tobeabletomeettheseperformancerequirements,Figure9canbe analyzedasfollows:

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1. Forreadintensivedatabaseswithlightdataloadactivities(Q1andQ2inFigure9),RAID5is recommendedforbothsmallandlargedatabasesizes.RAID5doesnotcreateanyperformance bottlenecksbecauseofthelightdataloadingactivities.RAID5isahighlycosteffectivesolution inthiscase. 2. Forsmalldatabaseswithheavydataloadactivities(Q3inFigure9),RAID10isrecommended. RAID5maybeaperformancebottleneckinthisworkloadscenario.Becauseofthesmall databasesize,RAID5maynotresultinsignificantcostsavings. 3. Forlargedatabaseswithheavydataloadactivities(Q4inFigure9),RAID10isrecommended. Forverylargedatabases,theRAID10solutionwillrequiresignificantlymorestorageandwillbe anexpensivesolution.Inthatcase,thedecisionforwhichRAIDtypetoselectshouldbedriven bytheamountofwindowavailablefordataloading.

Conclusion
Consideringallanalysesfromtheprevioussections,itcanbeconcludedthatRAID5imposes performancepenaltiesforwriteintensiveworkloads.Theperformancepenaltyincreasesasthenumber ofwritesincreases.Thisparityoverheadmaycausecontentionforthereadoperation,andthis cascadingeffectmaydecreasethereadperformance.Henceforallwriteintensiveworkloads,RAID10is alwaysrecommendedtoachieveoptimumperformance. Forreadintensiveworkloads,RAID5performancecanmatchthatofRAID10.AsRAID5configurations providelowcostperGB,itisrecommendedtohavetheRAID5layoutforreadintensiveworkloads. However,mostoftheOracledatabasesactivitiesarewriteintensive.Thefollowingdatabaseoperations typicallyexperiencehighwriteactivities WritingtoOracleControlFiles WritingtoOnlineredologs Writingtotemptablespaces WritingtoUndotablespaces

Performancerequirementsfortheaboveactivitiesareveryhighfromadatabaseperspective.Hence fromadatabaseenginepointofview,itishighlyrecommendedtoplacetheOraclecontrolfiles,online redologfiles,temp,andundotablespacesinaRAID10layout. Databasedatafilesarethetargetfortheuseoftherealapplication.Dependingontheapplication workload,thecustomershoulddecidetoplacethedatafilesinaRAID10oraRAID5layout. Basedontheresultsofthetesting,forOLTPworkloadswithahigherwritetoreadratio,itis recommendedtoselectaRAID10layout.However,acustomercanoptforaRAID5deploymenttohave acosteffectivesolution.Inaddition,RAID5canbeusedforalightlyloadeddatabasewithoutmuch performanceimpact.

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ButforwriteintensiveOLAPworkloads(forexample,databasebatchloading),RAID10isstrongly recommendedforbetterperformance.FordatawarehouseDSSapplicationswithhighlyreadintensive workloads,RAID5canprovideverygoodperformanceasRAID10and,atthesametime,canbevery costeffective.Theaboverecommendationsareconsolidatedinthebelowtable:

OracleDatabase WorkloadType Components

Controlfiles Redologfiles Undotablespace Temptablespace Datafiles Writeintensive Writeintensive Writeintensive Writeintensive OLTP(higherread towriteratio) DSSwrite intensive DSSread intensive

Recommended RAIDConfiguration
RAID10 RAID10 RAID10 RAID10 RAID10/RAID5

Comments
RAID5isnotrecommended. RAID5isnotrecommended. RAID5isnotrecommended. RAID5isnotrecommended. Withanincreasingwrite percentage,RAID5performance decreases. RAID5isnotrecommended. RAID5canmatchRAID10 performance.

Datafiles Datafiles

RAID10 RAID10/RAID5

Toconclude,RAID10deliversanoptimalperformanceformostdatabaseworkloads.However,RAID5 performancecanmatchtheRAID10performanceforreadintensiveworkloadsorlightlyloaded databaseworkloads.TheimplementationofRAID5alwaysdeliverslowercostperGB,resultingina morecosteffectivesolution.Overall,RAID5canperformaswellasRAID10forreadintensive workloads. Apartfromtheperformanceandcostanalysis,thecustomershouldalsoconsidertheavailability perspectiveofthestoragelayout.Asdiscussedearlier,RAID10cansustainmorediskfailures(halfofthe amountofdisksusedfortheRAIDconfiguration)withnodataloss,whereasRAID5cansustainonlyone diskfailure.ItshouldalsobekeptinmindthatthehighertheamountofdisksinaRAID5group,the moretimeisneededtorebuildthedatainthecaseofdiskfailure.

GLOSSARY
RAIDRedundantArrayofIndependentDisk.Thetechnologyisusedtoimproveperformanceand availabilityoftheunderlyingstoragearraysforanyapplication. OLTPOnlineTransactionProcessingsystemswhicharecharacterizedbyashortresponsetime,small transactions,andhighconcurrency.Theyusuallyhavehighperformancerequirements. DSSDecisionSupportSystemssupportbusinessandorganizationaldecisionmakingactivities,and usuallyhavehighthroughputrequirements. TPSTransactionsperSecondindicatesthetransactionratethatasystemcansupport.

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ResponseTimeIndicatesthetimeelapsedfortheSQLroundtrip. ThroughputMeasuresthetrafficflowbetweenthestoragedeviceandtheapplicationservers.

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References
OracleDatabasePerformanceTuningGuide11gRelease1(11.1)PartNumberB2827402 http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28274/toc.htm DellEnterpriseStorages http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/storage?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&~ck=mn DellPowerEdgeServers http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/servers?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&~ck=mn Dell/EMCProducts http://www.dell.com/emc EMCTechnicalDocumentations https://powerlink.emc.com/nsepn/webapps/btg548664833igtcuup4826/km/appmanager/km/secureDe sktop?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=image7a&internalId=0b014066800219ff&_irrt=true

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