BENCHMARK BRIEF
SAS® Scalable Performance Data Server® 4.52
Highlights:
SAS® Scalable Performance Data
Server® and Kaminario K2-D storage
deliver high query volume in a real-world
scenario using retail data.
• S AS Scalable Performance Data
Server executes on a 32-socket dual
core x64 machine running RHEL 5.6.
• D
 ata store is a 300GB data mart
stored in a star schema.
• The fact table has 1.3 billion rows.
• C
 ustomer detail-level reporting
returns report data in less than two
seconds.
• K aminario DRAM SAN averages
1.6GBps I/O with peak I/O above
3.9GBps.
Performance metrics for 260 Users on a DELL R910 Server with Kaminario
DRAM Storage
The SAS Scalable Performance Data
Server load performance test suite is
based on scenarios driven by how SAS
customers address their data reporting
and preparation needs. The workload is
designed to test server performance at
peak load. This benchmark scenario
drives system CPU usage at 75 percent
and higher during test execution.
Scenario
The SAS Scalable Performance Data
Server load test on the Dell R910 x64
Server runs the following scenario.
Processing simulates a combination of
“quick hit” customer support detail que-
ries and business user operational
reporting activities. Business analysts
create reports varying from unit- (store-)
level management through midlevel line
management and corporate-level
analysts in marketing and development.
The scenario is weighted to appropriate
percentages of user type and report
complexity for a typical organization. It
combines queries written for “star join”
optimization as well as SQL that might
be written by nontechnical business
analysts.
The scenario is designed to generate a
heavy load that would demonstrate
CPU and I/O usage characteristics
during a steady stream of processing
with typical think time. The result is
performance data, which shows the
practical limits of SAS Scalable
Performance Data Server on the
deployed hardware.
Data Description
SAS Scalable Performance Data Server
data storage totals 300GB.
• Fact table has 1.3 billion rows and is
270GB in size
• Customer geography dimension: 1.1
million rows
• Customer card dimension: 1.1 million
rows
• Item dimension: 47,000 rows
• Time dimension: 1,500 rows
• Store ID dimension: 493 rows
The fact table has the following simple
and or composite indexes:
Simple index: Store ID, customer ID,
item ID, date.
Composite index: Store ID and date,
store ID and item ID, item ID and date
Concurrent User Base
Dynamically generated reports varying
in complexity include the following:
Store-level manager reporting
• Detail sales rows selected for a “week
number” for all years
• Detail sales rows selected for a four-
week range for all years
• Store sales summarized by date for
full store history
• Store sales summarized to year and
month for full store history
District manager reporting
• Line item detail for selected district
and month
• Line item detail for selected district
and month (current and prior year)
Product-level manager reporting
• All items summarized to all year and
quarters*
• Selected item sales summarized to
year , month for four-year item history
• Line item detail for selected item cat-
egory and month (current and prior
year)
• Line item detail for selected item
number and month (current and prior
year)
Marketing analyst reporting
• All customers within a 10-mile radius
of a selected store within a 90-day
range
• Customer purchases for an age cat-
egory within a 90-day range
• All stores summary for all years and
year summary*
Customer support queries
• Customer detail records for selected
customer for four-year history
• Customer detail records for selected
customer within a 90-day range
*Indicates that these queries used SAS
Scalable Performance Data Server
Asynchronous Block Query execution.
Each submission block runs five
concurrent queries in parallel
Please see Table 1 for counts of report
types, client concurrency, and query
processing times.
Test Execution
A two-hour load is emulated during
testing. Users enter the processing
queue at a random interval so all users
are processing within three minutes.
Then they run in parallel, with think time
uniformly distributed from one second
to 180 seconds. All reports are
dynamically generated so that data
access is randomly distributed across
all data partition files and combinations
of subset selection criteria.
Hardware and Software
Configuration
SAS® Scalable Performance Data Server®
• Dell PowerEdge R910
• 32-core (two threads per core) Intel
Xeon CPU X7560 at 2.27GHz
• 128GB RAM
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
release 5.6 (Tikanga)
• SAS 9.2 with SAS Scalable
Performance Data Server 4.52 Hot
Fix 3
Storage Area Network
Kaminario K2-D DRAM
Performance Results
The SAS Scalable Performance Data
Server CPU usage averages 72 percent
and peaks intermittently at 95 percent.
I/O throughput averages 1,600 MBps.
 Average
Concurrent Async Block Total Queries 90th
Report Description Star Join Elapsed Time
Queries (1) Completed Percentile
(seconds)
All items summarized to all year and quarters 1 Y 15 329 348.8
Selected item sales summarized to year, month for four-year item history 3 180 28.3 82.3
All stores summary for all years and year summary 1 Y 20 290 337.3
Store sales summarized by date for full store history 30 1,813 26.3 51.2
Store sales summarized to year, month for full store history 15 952 20.6 42
Customer detail records for selected customer for four-year history 45 3,472 1.1 1.8
Customer detail records for selected customer within a 90-day range 45 3,459 1.1 1.8
Line item detail for selected district and month 15 Y 734 51.9 133.6
Line item detail for selected district and month (current and prior year) 3 Y 121 83.6 196
Line item detail for selected item category and month (current and prior year) 3 Y 204 6.3 12.8
Line item detail for selected item number and month (current and prior year) 3 Y 173 21 60
Store detail sales rows selected for a “week number” for all years 45 Y 3,099 11.1 29.1
Store detail sales rows selected for a four-week range for all years 45 Y 2,673 28.6 66.3
All customers within a 10-mile radius of a selected store within a 90-day range 3 Y 200 10.9 29.3
Customer purchases for an age category within a 90-day range 3 Y 61 243.2 528.5

Figure 1. System CPU and I/O Bandwidth

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