| Issue 1, 2013 | Download pdf |
Adabas on Mainframe
Adabas 8.2.5 on Mainframe sets a new performance record with more than one million commands per second in joint testing with IBM! Learn more at www.softwareag.com\adabasperformance.
The Fastest OLTP Database
When we talk about the strengths of Software AG’s flagship product, Adabas, the first thing that comes to mind is Adabas’ ultra-high performance capability. Adabas is world renowned for its incredible throughput and scalability in OLTP environments. For four decades, we have claimed that Adabas is the fastest OLTP database on earth. But how do we back that claim up?
In November 2012, Software AG R&D conducted a performance benchmark of Adabas at IBM’s Research Center in Poughkeepsie, NY in joint testing with IBM. The benchmark used Adabas version 8.2.5, running under IBM’s z/OS v1.13 operating system on IBM’s latest zEnterprise EC12 class mainframe. The result: Adabas attained incredible transaction speeds of more than one million commands per second – a record speed on a commercial IBM mainframe system.
To appreciate the progress of Adabas performance, it’s important to know that a previous benchmark, taken in 2006 on Adabas 8.1.1, attained speeds of approximately 320,000 commands per second. The new Adabas performance benchmark is more than triple the speed of the previously recorded benchmark. This is no small feat!
Let’s put one million commands in perspective. Imagine that every spectator at all sixteen National Football League games on a specific weekend simultaneously asked one bank, running one database, to send their account status to their cell phones - they would all receive simultaneous sub-second replies.
Behind The Success
Enabling new IBM z/OS operating system enhancements and making changes in key nucleus components of Adabas account for many of the performance improvements since the 2006 tests. Some of the Adabas changes include:
- improved parallelism in handling concurrent users
- improved performance of large object (LOB) updating
- nucleus support of pools, queues and tables in virtual storage above the 2 gigabyte bar, freeing virtual storage below the bar for other uses
- optimized handling of I/O
Leveraging IBM Z/Os Advances
To maximize performance on the mainframe, Adabas 8.2.5 took advantage of new IBM z/OS functionality.
IBM zHPF I/O Support
Adabas supports IBM’s new zHPF for optimizing mainframe I/O for storage devices. zHPF transparently provides dramatic improvements in I/O rates, bandwidth and I/O service times while preserving the qualities of service System z clients rely on to run their enterprises.
IBM Flash Express
Software AG and IBM also took the opportunity in November to work together to jointly test the new IBM Flash Express. IBM Flash Express offers improved levels of availability and performance. Flash Express is particularly useful in helping with workload transitions and increasing speed paging when handling large workloads. In testing, improvements were seen in the z/OS page with Adabas workload. By speeding up these transitions, users can get more useful work out of their mainframe servers.
IBM Large Page Support
Software AG also developed an enhancement to support IBM Large Pages that enables 1MB operating system pages for IBM z10 customers and 2GB operating system pages for the IBM zEnterprise EC12 customers. To improve the performance of long-running, memory-access intensive applications, virtual storage above the 2 GB Bar can be backed by large (1 MB) pages. Less memory management is required by activating the Large Page option.
IBM zIIP Support
Software AG’s zIIP Enabler for Natural takes advantage of IBM’s innovation by moving almost all batch workload of Natural from IBM GPP to less expensive zIIP for execution. This provides a low-cost alternative to increasing capacity on existing GPPs for customers reaching their z/OS capacity limit.
Key Adabas Improvements
Several key Adabas performance optimization products were also instrumental in delivering the record-breaking 1,183,000 commands per second results. Here are just a few.
Caching
Faster response times are achieved by reducing Adabas-related I/O with Adabas Caching Facility. By buffering data in main memory, the number of physical reads was greatly reduced generating better performance.
Virtual Storage—Nucleus 64-Bit Processing
To enhance performance, Adabas allows virtual storage above the 2 gigabyte (GB) Bar with 64-bit processing support. Many Adabas areas, such as ADACSH, protection buffers, and parallel/cluster services, can be allocated in the virtual storage space above the 2 GB Bar. Improved performance of large object (LOB) updating and nucleus support of pools, queues and tables in virtual storage above the 2 gigabyte bar, frees virtual storage below the bar for other uses.
Learn More
Renowned for transaction processing, Adabas can handle unlimited volumes of transactions at tremendous speeds while maintaining maximum availability. By leveraging new technologies that exploit the growth of memory and processing speeds, Adabas continues to deliver unmatched performance at a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) on z/OS, z/VSE and z/Linux.
Software AG’s will provide more details on the Adabas 8.2 high performance testing on the IBM zEnterprise EC12 via a white paper to be published by end of 1H of 2013.
