DB2 UDB configured to run at least near optimally at what percentage of sites?

[Spencer]

One of the things that I have become interested in lately is
questioning in general what percentage of DB2 UDB implementations are
configured to run at least near optimally given the hardware
infrastructure at said site. DB2 UDB continually is releasing
performance enhancements with each release especially with the most
recent 8.1 and 8.2 Lots of new features introduced and many to aid in
tuning performance. With that said I have to believe that many
installations are running sub-optimally as with lots of other DBMS
installs. Every client I have been at would stand to benefit from
increased performance out of their DBMS especially if no additional
hardware needed to be purchased.

I am not sure how IBM sells support contracts or if they do this
already but I think especially for some of the larger clients they
should roll in X number of days of on site performance tuning by an
IBM expert. If IBM could go on site for a week and do an in-depth
performance study and make recommendations to client and work with the
DBA's to show them how to do this I honestly think that IBM would be
doing itself a huge favor and ensure renewal of support contracts and
future sales.

Sorry for the rant but all too often I see these installs on huge
hardware and I know darn well they are utilizing about 25% of the box.
What ends up happening...a few years down the road they say well it
is time to switch DBMS vendors or application functionality is
eliminated or they buy some more unnecessary hardware.

Thoughts? Comments?

Spencer

[Mark A]

"Spencer" <sp*****@tabbert.net> wrote in message
news:57**************************@posting.google.c om...

One of the things that I have become interested in lately is
questioning in general what percentage of DB2 UDB implementations are
configured to run at least near optimally given the hardware
infrastructure at said site. DB2 UDB continually is releasing
performance enhancements with each release especially with the most
recent 8.1 and 8.2 Lots of new features introduced and many to aid in
tuning performance. With that said I have to believe that many
installations are running sub-optimally as with lots of other DBMS
installs. Every client I have been at would stand to benefit from
increased performance out of their DBMS especially if no additional
hardware needed to be purchased.

I am not sure how IBM sells support contracts or if they do this
already but I think especially for some of the larger clients they
should roll in X number of days of on site performance tuning by an
IBM expert. If IBM could go on site for a week and do an in-depth
performance study and make recommendations to client and work with the
DBA's to show them how to do this I honestly think that IBM would be
doing itself a huge favor and ensure renewal of support contracts and
future sales.

Sorry for the rant but all too often I see these installs on huge
hardware and I know darn well they are utilizing about 25% of the box.
What ends up happening...a few years down the road they say well it
is time to switch DBMS vendors or application functionality is
eliminated or they buy some more unnecessary hardware.

Thoughts? Comments?

Spencer

Not very many IBM'ers in IBM Global Services know how to tune it either.

Also, consider that DB2 Workgroup Edition costs little more than $1000 for
the basic license, so a one week consulting contract (with travel expense)
would dwarf the software cost.

The real problems are the memory configurations, which are very finicky and
prone to causing an outage if they are increased, so people are reluctant to
change them. Changing the various memory configurations in DB2 is often an
exercise in Voodoo.

With 64 bit addressing and better configuration advisor tools, these
problems could easily be solved. But since the DB2 GUI can't even remember
what message file I used last time I ran the LOAD (etc, etc) command, I am
not too hopeful. I have heard that memory configuration is a bit easier in
8.2, but I have not had a chance to evaluate it.

[Serge Rielau]

That's indeed a very real problem. It's not limited to the DBMS, btw.
The problem is that consulting (tuning) is expensive while hardware is
comparably cheap.
The only viable answer is really teh autonoic tuning initiative of major
DBMS including DB2.
One problem that I have been wondering about lately is whether it will
be possible to tune the procedural vs. SQL interface.
That's a tough nut to crack :-(

Cheers
Serge

[Ian]

Spencer wrote:

One of the things that I have become interested in lately is
questioning in general what percentage of DB2 UDB implementations are
configured to run at least near optimally given the hardware
infrastructure at said site. DB2 UDB continually is releasing
performance enhancements with each release especially with the most
recent 8.1 and 8.2 Lots of new features introduced and many to aid in
tuning performance. With that said I have to believe that many
installations are running sub-optimally as with lots of other DBMS
installs. Every client I have been at would stand to benefit from
increased performance out of their DBMS especially if no additional
hardware needed to be purchased.

I am not sure how IBM sells support contracts or if they do this
already but I think especially for some of the larger clients they
should roll in X number of days of on site performance tuning by an
IBM expert. If IBM could go on site for a week and do an in-depth
performance study and make recommendations to client and work with the
DBA's to show them how to do this I honestly think that IBM would be
doing itself a huge favor and ensure renewal of support contracts and
future sales.

Sorry for the rant but all too often I see these installs on huge
hardware and I know darn well they are utilizing about 25% of the box.
What ends up happening...a few years down the road they say well it
is time to switch DBMS vendors or application functionality is
eliminated or they buy some more unnecessary hardware.

Thoughts? Comments?

Spencer

There are a great many shops that run DB2 with the out-of-the-box
configuration parameters, and could certainly get some performance
out of simple tuning. The Configuration Advisor is good at this.

However, more often than not (in my experience), an application and/or
database design review is far more likely to turn up the most
significant causes of poor performance. IBM provides assistance with
the Design Advisor (esp. in V8.2), but this does not usually solve
poor application design issues.



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