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Connor McDonald

Thanks for the question, John.

Asked: August 01, 2016 - 12:43 am UTC

Last updated: October 31, 2022 - 4:04 am UTC

Version: 11.2

Viewed 1000+ times

You Asked

Good Sunday Afternoon, Gentlemen.

I have one of the most important questions that I am sure scares the most DBAs is having to recommend the number of CPUs a database server should have. After all, if we recommend the wrong size, it is a very costly miscalculation. On the one hand, if it is too low, the system will be thrashing and performance will be terrible. On the other hand, if it is too high, we are now responsible for the company wasting a lot of money on Oracle licenses. Is there a good method to determining the initial number CPUs for a database server? Also, is this task supposed to be a DBA task? It doesn't seem to be since Oracle training doesn't spend any significant time in any class to show the new DBAs how to do this potential career limiting task.

Thanks,

John

and Connor said...

Some options to consider:

1) cloud

If your company is concerned about resource utilisation, then using a "pay for only what you are using" would be a sensible solution to this.

2) virtualisation

You can buy a server with 'n' cores, but put Oracle VM over the top of it, and only have to license the cores you are using.

Hope this helps.

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Comments

A reader, August 01, 2016 - 4:39 pm UTC

Hello Connor,

Thanks for your advice. However, what would you have suggested if before cloud computing was an option?

Also, how stable is Oracle VM and how hard will it be for a DBA to administrate it?

Thanks,

John
Chris Saxon
August 04, 2016 - 7:49 am UTC

Even without cloud, people underestimate what an insane amount of work a modern CPU can do. Even a simple 2socket intel chip (which typically will have 6-12 cores per socket) is more than ample for the vast majority of clients.

I did some work for a client who can do up to 1000 transactions per second, and even then, they used Oracle VM to carve up the physical box to keep the core count down (for license cost benefits)

I've never had any trouble with Oracle VM.

Transaction

Andrewmaine Frater, October 28, 2022 - 10:23 pm UTC

How do you calculate the transaction per second when designing a database
Connor McDonald
October 31, 2022 - 4:04 am UTC

WHen *designing* a database, it means you do not have one yet, which means "transactions per second" is a question you ask of the *customers* or business stakeholders, eg

"How many widgets did we sell last month?"

or

"How many transactions did the OLD system do per second"

etc
more

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