Database performance comparison paper.

Some people may find this interesting reading.

http://us.devloop.org.uk/

- Marc

Marc Evans schrieb:
> Some people may find this interesting reading.
>
> http://us.devloop.org.uk/
Nice, but it would be interesting which storage engine was used for
mysql - ok, default is MyIsam.

Does mysql (in the latest version) still use a single write-thread for
writing?
In mysql 3, a badly formed query which writes millions of tuples to a
temporary table blocks the database for the whole query execution time.

Greetings,
Alexander

Am 15.02.2007 um 11:21 schrieb Marc Evans:

> http://us.devloop.org.uk/

These *peeeeeeep* [deleted] compared MySQL with MyISAM to ACID
compliant databases. So why not compare an F-15 to 747? What? Apples
and Oranges? So what? You can compare anything you want, right? Only
the result matters.

So, my hint to these guys is: learn about the principles of databases
(at least read: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID>), then about the
principles of optimizing databases, then about the principles of
testing (don't compare products or setups that do completely
different things) and then do you homework again.

Go home.

cug

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On 02/15/07 15:29, Guido Neitzer wrote:
> Am 15.02.2007 um 11:21 schrieb Marc Evans:
>
>> http://us.devloop.org.uk/
>
> These *peeeeeeep* [deleted] compared MySQL with MyISAM to ACID compliant
> databases. So why not compare an F-15 to 747? What? Apples and Oranges?
> So what? You can compare anything you want, right? Only the result matters.

Bad analogy. Both the F-15 and 747 are high-performance (within
their problem domains) and have redundancy out the wazoo.
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Ron Johnson <ron(dot)l(dot)johnson(at)cox(dot)net> writes:
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>> Am 15.02.2007 um 11:21 schrieb Marc Evans:
>> These *peeeeeeep* [deleted] compared MySQL with MyISAM to ACID compliant
>> databases. So why not compare an F-15 to 747? What? Apples and Oranges?

> Bad analogy. Both the F-15 and 747 are high-performance (within
> their problem domains) and have redundancy out the wazoo.

I think it's a fine analogy, precisely because they're both good in
their respective problem domains. Try to carry 500 people from Los
Angeles to Tokyo in an F-15. No? Try to win a dogfight in a 747. No?
But they both fly, so it must be useful to compare them... especially
on the basis of the most simplistic test case you can think of. For
extra points, use *only one* test case. Perhaps this paper can be
described as "comparing an F-15 to a 747 on the basis of required
runway length".

regards, tom lane

On Friday 16. February 2007 07:10, Tom Lane wrote:

> Perhaps this
> paper can be described as "comparing an F-15 to a 747 on the basis of
> required runway length".

There ought to be a proper name for this kind of pseudo-technical Gonzo
journalism. The Internet is full of it.
--
Leif Biberg Kristensen | Registered Linux User #338009
http://solumslekt.org/ | Cruising with Gentoo/KDE
My Jazz Jukebox: http://www.last.fm/user/leifbk/

Am 15.02.2007 um 13:05 schrieb Alexander Elgert:

> Nice, but it would be interesting which storage engine was used for
> mysql - ok, default is MyIsam.

They used MyISAM as it is described late in the paper.

cug

Leif B. Kristensen wrote:
> On Friday 16. February 2007 07:10, Tom Lane wrote:
>
>> Perhaps this
>> paper can be described as "comparing an F-15 to a 747 on the basis of
>> required runway length".
>
> There ought to be a proper name for this kind of pseudo-technical Gonzo
> journalism. The Internet is full of it.

advertalism?

On Sat, Feb 17, 2007 at 12:02:08AM +0100, Leif B. Kristensen wrote:
>
> There ought to be a proper name for this kind of pseudo-technical Gonzo
> journalism.

There is, but it's not the sort of word one uses in polite company
;-)

A

--
Andrew Sullivan | ajs(at)crankycanuck(dot)ca
Unfortunately reformatting the Internet is a little more painful
than reformatting your hard drive when it gets out of whack.
--Scott Morris

Tom Allison wrote:
> Leif B. Kristensen wrote:
>> On Friday 16. February 2007 07:10, Tom Lane wrote:
>>
>>> Perhaps this
>>> paper can be described as "comparing an F-15 to a 747 on the basis of
>>> required runway length".
>>
>> There ought to be a proper name for this kind of pseudo-technical
>> Gonzo journalism. The Internet is full of it.
>
> advertalism?

Lies?

--
Until later, Geoffrey

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

On 2/16/2007 1:10 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
> extra points, use *only one* test case. Perhaps this paper can be
> described as "comparing an F-15 to a 747 on the basis of required
> runway length".

Oh, this one wasn't about raw speed of trivial single table statements
like all the others?

Jan

--
#======================================================================#
# It's easier to get forgiveness for being wrong than for being right. #
# Let's break this rule - forgive me. #
#================================================== JanWieck(at)Yahoo(dot)com #

Am 19.02.2007 um 17:49 schrieb Jan Wieck:

> Oh, this one wasn't about raw speed of trivial single table
> statements like all the others?

No, it wasn't. They also tested the insert performance of a system
without foreign keys and without transactions (MySQL MyISAM) against
systems with foreign key handling and transactions.

It would be more or less the same, if you compare copy against insert
performance on PostgreSQL and state that insert should be as fast as
copy without saying why.

Btw: these guys claim to be database consultants.

cug

On 2/21/07, Guido Neitzer wrote:

> It would be more or less the same, if you compare copy against insert
> performance on PostgreSQL and state that insert should be as fast as
> copy without saying why.
>
> Btw: these guys claim to be database consultants.
Guess one should consider oneself lucky not to be their
customer, then, since they seem to base their decisions
on thin air and personal preference...

> cug
Cheers,
Andrej

On 2/20/2007 3:51 PM, Andrej Ricnik-Bay wrote:
> On 2/21/07, Guido Neitzer wrote:
>
>> It would be more or less the same, if you compare copy against insert
>> performance on PostgreSQL and state that insert should be as fast as
>> copy without saying why.
>>
>> Btw: these guys claim to be database consultants.
> Guess one should consider oneself lucky not to be their
> customer, then, since they seem to base their decisions
> on thin air and personal preference...

As the original author of the PHP TPC-W implementation you can find on
pgfoundry, I know pretty good what it takes to make MySQL perform about
as good as PostgreSQL under a real benchmarking scenario. I implemented
all the database access parts basically two times. Once for PostgreSQL
as an experienced DB developer would do it, once turning half the
queries upside down in a horribly unintuitive way to give MySQL+InnoDB
clues how to do it. Of course did I NOT run any of those tests using MyISAM.

In the end, both implementations performed more or less the same,
measured at the HTTP interface. What the PHP+PG implementation did more
elegantly in SQL, the PHP+My implementation had to do with more PHP
code. And that is where all those crappy wannabe-benchmarks just fail to
make sense to me. They measure some common denominator SQL statements at
an abstracted DB API level. That is just nonsense. It doesn't matter how
fast a specific index scan or a specific insert or update operation by
itself is. What matters is how many parallel simulated users of a well
defined business application the System Under Test (middleware plus
database) can support within the responsetime constraints.

All that said, what really scares me is that these clowns apparently
don't even know the system of their preference. No serious DB consultant
would even bother testing anything using MyISAM any more. It is a table
handler only considered for "disposable data".

Jan

--
#======================================================================#
# It's easier to get forgiveness for being wrong than for being right. #
# Let's break this rule - forgive me. #
#================================================== JanWieck(at)Yahoo(dot)com #