SPARC T5-4 Produces World Record Single Server TPC-H @3000GB Benchmark Result

Oracle's SPARC T5-4 server delivered world record single server performance of 409,721 QphH@3000GB with price/performance of $3.94/QphH@3000GB on the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark. This result shows that the 4-chip SPARC T5-4 server is significantly faster than the 8-chip server results from IBM (POWER7 based) and HP (Intel x86 based).

This result demonstrates a complete data warehouse solution that shows the performance both of individual and concurrent query processing streams, faster loading, and refresh of the data during business operations. The SPARC T5-4 server delivers superior performance and cost efficiency when compared to the IBM POWER7 result.

• The SPARC T5-4 server with four SPARC T5 processors is 2.1 times faster than the IBM Power 780 server with eight POWER7 processors and 2.5 times faster than the HP ProLiant DL980 G7 server with eight x86 processors on the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark. The SPARC T5-4 server also delivered better performance per core than these eight processor systems from IBM and HP.

• The SPARC T5-4 server with four SPARC T5 processors is 2.1 times faster than the IBM Power 780 server with eight POWER7 processors on the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark.

• The SPARC T5-4 server costs 38% less per $/QphH@3000GB compared to the IBM Power 780 server with the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark.

• The SPARC T5-4 server took 2 hours, 6 minutes, 4 seconds for data loading while the IBM Power 780 server took 2.8 times longer.

• The SPARC T5-4 server executed the first refresh function (RF1) in 19.4 seconds, the IBM Power 780 server took 7.6 times longer.

• The SPARC T5-4 server with four SPARC T5 processors is 2.5 times faster than the HP ProLiant DL980 G7 server with the same number of cores on the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark.

• The SPARC T5-4 server took 2 hours, 6 minutes, 4 seconds for data loading while the HP ProLiant DL980 G7 server took 4.1 times longer.

• The SPARC T5-4 server executed the first refresh function (RF1) in 19.4 seconds, the HP ProLiant DL980 G7 server took 8.9 times longer.

• The SPARC T5-4 server delivered 6% better performance than the SPARC Enterprise M9000-64 server and 2.1 times better than the SPARC Enterprise M9000-32 server on the TPC-H @3000GB benchmark.

Performance Landscape

The table lists the leading TPC-H @3000GB results for non-clustered systems.

P/C/T = Processors, Cores, Threads
QphH = the Composite Metric (bigger is better)
$/QphH = the Price/Performance metric in USD (smaller is better)
QppH = the Power Numerical Quantity
QthH = the Throughput Numerical Quantity

The following table lists data load times and refresh function times during the power run.

Data Loading = database load time
RF1 = power test first refresh transaction
RF2 = power test second refresh transaction
T5 Advan = the ratio of time to T5 time

Complete benchmark results found at the TPC benchmark website http://www.tpc.org.

Configuration Summary and Results

Hardware Configuration:

External Storage:

Software Configuration:

Audited Results:

Benchmark Description

The TPC-H benchmark is a performance benchmark established by the Transaction Processing Council (TPC) to demonstrate Data Warehousing/Decision Support Systems (DSS). TPC-H measurements are produced for customers to evaluate the performance of various DSS systems. These queries and updates are executed against a standard database under controlled conditions. Performance projections and comparisons between different TPC-H Database sizes (100GB, 300GB, 1000GB, 3000GB, 10000GB, 30000GB and 100000GB) are not allowed by the TPC.

TPC-H is a data warehousing-oriented, non-industry-specific benchmark that consists of a large number of complex queries typical of decision support applications. It also includes some insert and delete activity that is intended to simulate loading and purging data from a warehouse. TPC-H measures the combined performance of a particular database manager on a specific computer system.

The main performance metric reported by TPC-H is called the TPC-H Composite Query-per-Hour Performance Metric (QphH@SF, where SF is the number of GB of raw data, referred to as the scale factor). QphH@SF is intended to summarize the ability of the system to process queries in both single and multiple user modes. The benchmark requires reporting of price/performance, which is the ratio of the total HW/SW cost plus 3 years maintenance to the QphH. A secondary metric is the storage efficiency, which is the ratio of total configured disk space in GB to the scale factor.

Key Points and Best Practices

• Twelve of Oracle's Sun Storage 2540-M2 arrays with Sun Storage 2501-M2 expansion trays were used for the benchmark. Each contains 24 15K RPM drives and is connected to a single dual port 16Gb FC HBA using 2 ports through a Brocade 6510 Fibre Channel switch.

• The SPARC T5-4 server achieved a peak IO rate of 33 GB/sec from the Oracle database configured with this storage.

• Oracle Solaris 11.1 required very little system tuning.

• Some vendors try to make the point that storage ratios are of customer concern. However, storage ratio size has more to do with disk layout and the increasing capacities of disks – so this is not an important metric when comparing systems.

• The SPARC T5-4 server and Oracle Solaris efficiently managed the system load of two thousand Oracle Database parallel processes.

• Six Sun Storage 2540-M2/2501-M2 arrays were mirrored to another six Sun Storage 2540-M2/25001-M2 arrays on which all of the Oracle database files were placed. IO performance was high and balanced across all the arrays.

• The TPC-H Refresh Function (RF) simulates periodical refresh portion of Data Warehouse by adding new sales and deleting old sales data. Parallel DML (parallel insert and delete in this case) and database log performance are a key for this function and the SPARC T5-4 server outperformed both the IBM POWER7 server and HP ProLiant DL980 G7 server. (See the RF columns above.)

See Also

• SPARC T5-4 Server TPC-H Executive Summary
  tpc.org
• Complete SPARC T5-4 Server TPC-H Full Disclosure Report
  tpc.org
• Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) Home Page
• Ideas International Benchmark Page
• SPARC T5-4 Server
  oracle.com OTN
• Oracle Solaris
  oracle.com OTN
• Oracle Database 11g Release 2
  oracle.com OTN
• Sun Storage 2540-M2 Array
  oracle.com OTN

Disclosure Statement

TPC-H, QphH, $/QphH are trademarks of Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). For more information, see www.tpc.org, results as of 6/7/13. Prices are in USD. SPARC T5-4 409,721.8 QphH@3000GB, $3.94/QphH@3000GB, available 9/24/13, 4 processors, 64 cores, 512 threads; SPARC T4-4 205,792.0 QphH@3000GB, $4.10/QphH@3000GB, available 5/31/12, 4 processors, 32 cores, 256 threads; SPARC Enterprise M9000 386,478.3 QphH@3000GB, $18.19/QphH@3000GB, available 9/22/11, 64 processors, 256 cores, 256 threads; SPARC Enterprise M9000 198,907.5 QphH@3000GB, $15.27/QphH@3000GB, available 12/9/10, 32 processors, 128 cores, 128 threads; IBM Power 780 QphH@3000GB, 192,001.1 QphH@3000GB, $6.37/QphH@3000GB, available 11/30/11, 8 processors, 32 cores, 128 threads; HP ProLiant DL980 G7 162,601.7 QphH@3000GB, $2.68/QphH@3000GB available 10/13/10, 8 processors, 64 cores, 128 threads.