Featuring: AutoMagic, SmartParts and Database Driven Relational Object Model (DDROM ) Performance Whitepaper www.shipconstructor.com Copyright 2008 ShipConstructor Software Inc. October 22, 2008
ShipConstructor 2008 Performance Whitepaper Published 2008-10-22 Copyright Copyright 2008 ShipConstructor Software Inc. Information in this ShipConstructor manual is the property of ShipConstructor Software Inc. No part of it can be reproduced, translated, resold, rented, adapted, modified, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, in whole or in part. All Rights Reserved. Trademarks ShipConstructor AutoMagic SmartParts Database Driven Relational Object Model DDROM Are all registered trademarks of ShipConstructor Software Inc. ShipConstructor Software Inc. Suite 304 3960 Quadra Street Victoria, BC Canada V8X 4A3 Toll Free: Phone: Fax: 1-888-210-7420 1-250-479-3638 1-250-479-0868 Information: Support: Sales: info@shipconstructor.com support@shipconstructor.com SSI@ShipConstructor.com Website: www.shipconstructor.com
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Contents Contents ShipConstructor Performance White Paper 1 Introduction... 1 Overview... 1 Client Hardware Requirements... 1 CPU... 1 RAM... 1 Graphics Card... 2 Server Hardware Requirements... 2 Database Server... 2 Microsoft SQL Server... 2 CPU... 3 RAM... 3 Disk Configuration... 3 Project File Server... 4 32 bit vs. 64 bit... 4 ShipConstructor Clients... 6 Microsoft SQL Server... 6 Measuring Performance... 6 Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files 7 Using ShipConstructor Server Setup... 7 Using SQL Server Management Studio... 8 Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 12 Basic Setup...12 Configuring Perfmon...12 Starting a Perfmon Log...19 Stopping a Perfmon Log...20 Reviewing Perfmon Data...20 Performance Counters...26 Investigating Memory Performance... 26 i
Contents Investigating CPU Performance... 26 Investigating Disk Performance... 26 Baseline Metrics... 27 Index ii 29
ShipConstructor Performance White Paper ShipConstructor Performance White Paper Introduction Design and implementation of server and client hardware and software to support a ShipConstructor installation is an important part of a successful project. Properly designed hardware and software implementations provide maximum performance and increase the efficiency of ShipConstructor users. When designing a ShipConstructor hardware and software implementation there are a number of factors to consider that affect performance, reliability, cost, and ease of configuration. This white paper is designed for ShipConstructor 2008 enterprise administrators and or any IT administrator looking to maximize the performance and minimize the cost of ShipConstructor software and hardware. It is designed to be an information extension of the information available in the ShipConstructor installation guide. Overview A ShipConstructor installation consists of clients and servers. There are two components of a ShipConstructor project that must be served to clients: project databases and project files. ShipConstructor project databases are Microsoft SQL Server databases that must be hosted by an instance of Microsoft SQL Server. One project database is required for each ShipConstructor project. ShipConstructor project files consist of the directory structure and AutoCAD drawing files associated with a ShipConstructor project. ShipConstructor project files should be stored on a network share accessible to all clients requiring access to a ShipConstructor project. The hardware and software requirements of ShipConstructor client installations is generally constant across ShipConstructor installations and is not significantly impacted by project size or number of project users. ShipConstructor server requirements are affected by a number of factors including number of concurrent ShipConstructor users, project size, and the number of projects being concurrently hosted. Client Hardware Requirements The most important hardware requirements to consider for ShipConstructor 2008 performance are: CPU, RAM, and graphics card. CPU The new trend in CPU s is hosting multiple cores on a single chip essentially creating multiple processors in a machine that only has one chip. ShipConstructor runs inside of the acad.exe process so it is bound by the parallel processing rules of the AutoCAD process. AutoCAD does have limited ability to use multiple CPU cores based on the WHIPTHREAD variable. Processors with multiple cores will allow AutoCAD and ShipConstructor to use one or more cores while leaving other cores available for use by the operating and system and other applications. As a general rule of thumb the faster the processor clock speed the better your ShipConstructor performance will be. RAM ShipConstructor recommends that a minimum of 2GB of RAM be present in ShipConstructor clients although for maximum performance 4GB is recommended. Additional RAM will increase performance when loading larger portions of the ShipConstructor model into memory. 1
ShipConstructor Performance White Paper Graphics Card The graphics card used in a ShipConstructor 2008 client workstation is a very important but often overlooked feature. Investing in a powerful, supported graphics card will reap dividends in stability, rendering speed, and image quality. Autodesk publishes a list of supported graphics cards here. Server Hardware Requirements There are two components of a ShipConstructor project that must be served to ShipConstructor clients: the ShipConstructor project database and ShipConstructor project files. These server components can be hosted together on one server or can be hosted on separate servers. When designing a hardware configuration to support a ShipConstructor server there is no one configuration that must be used to achieve optimal performance. The ShipConstructor installation guide offers guidelines and configurations that are equivalent or greater to the given guidelines and should offer sufficient performance. Database Server ShipConstructor 2008 is a database application that uses an SQL Server database to manage and store model data. Making sure that the server hosting your ShipConstructor databases is sufficiently powerful is an important part of a successful project. The hardware requirements of a server hosting ShipConstructor databases are based on a combination of the following three factors: number of concurrent users, project size, and number of projects. The important hardware requirements of a server hosting ShipConstructor databases are: CPU, RAM, hard disk speed, and network connection speed to clients. Microsoft SQL Server ShipConstructor 2008 supports Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005. There are a number of different SQL Server editions available ranging in price from free to expensive. The ShipConstructor applicable differences between editions of SQL Server 2005 are generally limited to: Number of supported CPU chips Amount of usable supported memory (RAM) 64 bit support Feature/Edition Express Workgroup Standard Enterprise Max Number of CPUs 1 2 4 No Limit Max RAM (GB) 1 3 No Limit No Limit 64 bit support No No Yes Yes Cost Free $ $$ $$$ SQL Server CPU Licensing Model The most common method of licensing SQL Server 2005 is per physical CPU chip. When processing queries, Microsoft SQL Server sees a single physical CPU with multiple cores as multiple logical CPU s. This can offer licensing benefits as a server containing one physical CPU with four cores is considered to have one CPU for licensing considerations but four CPU s for use in query execution plans. For this reason, ShipConstructor recommends using multi-core processors in your servers hosting ShipConstructor project databases as this allows you to achieve the parallel processing benefit of multiple CPU s without incurring additional software licensing costs. Multiple Instances of SQL Server For organizations hosting multiple small projects, it may be beneficial to consider installing multiple instances of SQL Server Express Edition over purchasing a full license of SQL Server. Individual project databases can reside on their own instance of SQL Server thereby allocating, to the single database, the full CPU and memory resources that the SQL Server instance will use. This deployment strategy has the benefit of eliminating SQL Server software licenses costs but has 2
ShipConstructor Performance White Paper drawback of additional deployment and maintenance complexity as well as the 1GB RAM and 1 physical CPU per instance limit of SQL Server Express. CPU The CPU in a database server is used to execute database queries. More numerous and faster CPU s can respond to more client requests in less time. The new trend in CPU s is hosting multiple cores on a single CPU chip essentially creating multiple processors in a machine that may have only one or two physical CPU chips. ShipConstructor is written to utilize one CPU per database query so having multiple cores on a single CPU or multiple CPU chips allow multiple database queries to be processed concurrently. This is very beneficial in an environment with a large number of concurrent users. RAM Sufficient memory in the server hosting your SQL Server databases is important because it allows SQL Server to cache data in memory and lowers the amount of slower disk access required. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that your server has memory equivalent or greater than the size of the database data files being hosted on the server. For instructions on how to discover the size of your database data files please see Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files. Allowing some extra memory for operating system and other application functions is also a good idea. Consider the following example: Server running Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server Standard Edition ShipConstructor project database alpha has a data file size of 800MB and the project is nearly complete ShipConstructor project database beta has a data file size of 126MB but it expected to grow to 1GB Recommended memory requirements: 1GB for operating system and applications 1GB for project database alpha 1GB for project database beta It is generally sufficient to only factor in memory requirements for databases that are actively being used. If your organization has many ShipConstructor projects, but most are infrequently accessed because they are completed and only required for reference, only using active ShipConstructor project database sizes to compute your memory requirement should still offer close to optimal performance. SQL Server will swap data in and out of memory for the databases that are currently being used creating optimal performance for active project databases. Disk Configuration Hard disk performance is a very important component of an optimally configured database server. Servers with a hard disk bottleneck leave the other components of the server, such as CPU, underutilized and a hard disk bottleneck is the most common cause of ShipConstructor client timeout errors. RAID technology is used to deliver maximum disk performance in a server. File Groups In a database server there are a number of logical file groups that can be organized together or on their own disk arrays in order to deliver different levels of performance. These logical file groups are: Operating system and application binaries System databases Tempdb system database Database data files Database log files ShipConstructor project files For environments with five or less concurrent users it is generally sufficient to have all file groups on a single disk array. As project size, and the number of concurrent ShipConstructor users grows, adding additional disks to existing disk arrays and moving file groups onto their own disk arrays s must be done to maintain optimal performance. 3
ShipConstructor Performance White Paper For ShipConstructor implementations supporting up to ten concurrent users, a single disk array hosting all file groups is generally sufficient. For implementations between ten and twenty users moving the database data and log files and ShipConstructor project files onto a separate RAID array is recommended. For implementations beyond twenty users moving tempdb or ShipConstructor project files onto their own disk arrays will add additional performance. Consider the following implementation baselines. 10 20 Users RAID 1 (2 disks) : operating system, SQL Server binaries, system databases, tempdb, RAID 5 (3 disks) or RAID 10 (4 disks) : database data files and log files, ShipConstructor project files 20 40 Users RAID 1 (2 disks) : Operating System, SQL Server Binaries, System Databases, tempdb RAID 5 (4 disks) or RAID 10 (disks) : database data files RAID 1 ( 2 disks) : database log files RAID 1 ( 2 disks) : ShipConstructor project files Project File Server Hardware requirements for a server hosting ShipConstructor project files are generally not very high as the server acts as a file server not performing any processing and only reading, writing, sending, and receiving drawing files across the network. The two important hardware requirements of a network server are network bandwidth and hard disk speed. Network bandwidth from project file server to clients is an important hardware requirement. Project files are commonly hosted on the same server as the ShipConstructor project databases however hosting them on their own server will allow bandwidth requirements to be split between multiple servers in an environment with a large number of users. 32 bit vs. 64 bit There are some facts about 32 bit, 64 bit and ShipConstructor that will help you limit costs and optimize performance in your environment. Using a 64 bit architecture and operating system can offer performance improvements over 32 bit due to the ability to natively address memory beyond 4GB. Also, the larger bus in a 64 bit architecture has the ability to send and receive more data from the processor during each bus cycle which can improve processing efficiency and performance. PC s with a 32 bit architecture may only run 32 bit operating systems. PC s with a 64 bit architecture can generally run 32 bit or 64 bit operating systems. A 64 bit architecture combined with a 64 bit Windows version has the ability to natively address up to 128GB of RAM. In theory, PCs running a 32 bit operating system have the ability to natively address 4GB of RAM. In practice however, PC s running a 32 bit operating system will only see slightly over 3GB of RAM available to them. The reason for this is that the 4GB of memory addressing capability available in a 32 bit architecture must be split between the addressing requirements of RAM, video card memory, and other onboard devices. This means that a PC with 4GB of RAM running a 32 bit operating system leaves almost one entire gigabyte of memory unused. 4
ShipConstructor Performance White Paper In addition to the available RAM practical limit of 3GB, operating systems such as Windows XP or Windows Vista will only allow applications such as ShipConstructor or SQL Server to utilize 2GB of memory. Directions in the following article can be used to direct windows to share its dedicated operating system memory with applications and allow applications to access up to 3GB of RAM. Warning: Altering windows to extend the amount of memory available to applications should only be performed by experienced users who understand the risks associated. 5
ShipConstructor Performance White Paper ShipConstructor Clients ShipConstructor 2008 64 bit compatibility is currently under development and is not available at this time. However, this limitation only applies to PC s running ShipConstructor client software or server tools. SQL Server 2005 Standard and Enterprise Editions are fully 64 bit compatible and can be used on 64 bit hardware with a 64 bit operating system to host ShipConstructor databases that are accessed by 32 bit clients. Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard and Enterprise Editions as well as SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition offer 64 bit support. This means that you can install a 64 bit version of SQL Server on 64 bit hardware running a 64 bit operating system to take advantage of larger amounts of natively addressable memory, better scalability in implementations with multiple CPU s, and better performance due to greater system bus bandwidth. It is possible to allow SQL Server to address memory beyond 4GB using Advanced Windows Extensions (AWE) memory. Configuring SQL Server to use AWE should only be performed by experienced SQL Server administrators who understand the risk, and configuration and maintenance tasks involved. Additionally, while AWE can be an acceptable solution in many cases there are many SQL Server memory requirements that cannot be stored in memory addressed using AWE. This means that adding additional memory using AWE may not always address server memory constraints. Additionally, AWE adds an additional layer of computation that can negatively affect performance. Where possible, ShipConstructor recommends implementing a full 64 bit SQL Server instance over a 32 bit instance using AWE. Measuring Performance Periodic gathering and analysis of database server performance metrics will help ensure that your ShipConstructor users are working as efficiently as possible. Perfmon is a free tool included with windows that can be used to gather data on hardware and SQL Server metrics to detect performance bottlenecks and ensure optimal performance. For detailed instructions on setting up and using Perfmon please see Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data. 6
Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files Using ShipConstructor Server Setup 1. On the PC running SQL Server, select Start Menu >All Programs > ShipConstructor 2008 > Utilities > Server Setup. 2. When the Server Setup window appears ensure that the selected Server Instance is the SQL Server instance installed on the local machine whose data file sizes you wish to evaluate. 3. The location of the data files and log files is indicated by the paths in the Data Path and Log Path text boxes. 4. Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the Data Path directory. 5. SQL Server data files have a file naming convention of <database name>.mdf. SQL Server log files have a file naming convention of <database name>. ldf. 7
Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files Using SQL Server Management Studio 8 1. Click Start Menu > All Programs > SQL Server 2005 > SQL Server Management Studio 2. When the Connect to Server dialog appears, provide authentication information to connect the SQL Server instance whose data files size you wish to evaluate. 3. In the Object Explorer pane, right click on the SQL Server Instance name then click Properties.
Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files 4. In the Server Properties window, click Database Settings. 5. The location of the data files and log files is indicated by the paths in the Data and Log text boxes. 9
Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files 10 6. Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the Data directory. 7. SQL Server data files have a file naming convention of database name.mdf. SQL Server log files have a file naming convention of database name. ldf
Appendix 1 Discovering the size of database data and log files 11
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data Perfmon is a free tool included with Windows that allows gathering of performance data related to PC hardware and SQL Server. When gathering hardware and SQL Server performance data, ShipConstructor recommends that logging tools be started and stopped over one to three normal activity days. Gathering three days of data will offer a better statistical sample than a single day. Starting and stopping the logging tools each day will allow for easy segregation of data for better analysis. During the logging process, no project data is logged or submitted to ShipConstructor. Basic Setup To easily organize output provided by all logging it is recommended that you create a directory to store log output. For the purposes of this example we will assume that all log output from both monitoring methods is stored at C:\SCMonitoring. Before continuing on to the next steps you should create this directory. Configuring Perfmon 12 1. Start Perfmon by clicking the Windows Start Menu, clicking Run, typing perfmon in the text box and then clicking Ok. Perfrmon should be displayed as shown in the screen capture below. 2. In the navigation tree displayed on the left, expand the Performance Logs and Alerts node and select Counter Logs. All currently configured counter logs are displayed.
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 3. To create a new log, right-click on Counter Logs and select New Log Settings. 4. Type a name for this logging configuration and click Ok. For example, ShipConstructor Server Log. After clicking the Ok button a log settings dialog is displayed. 13
Appendix 2 14 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 5. On the General tab, click the Add Counters button to add counters to your log. The Add Counters dialog is displayed. 6. Ensure that the radio button Use local computer is selected. 7. Add the appropriate counters to your log by selecting a Performance Object, Counter, and Instance or Instances followed by clicking the Add button. See the Performance Counters section for information on which counters to use for monitoring specific hardware or software features. 15
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 8. After all counters have been added, click the Close button to return to the log settings dialog. 9. On the General tab of the log settings dialog, change the Interval to be 10 and the Units to be seconds. Note: Monitoring performance does have some cost associated with it. Setting an Interval of 10 seconds generally offers a good tradeoff between accurate sampling and performance degradation. Setting an Interval of 5 seconds will give a more accurate sampling of data but increases the load on the machine being monitored. If you notice that performance is suffering after starting your monitoring process try increasing the Interval and restarting the log. 16
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 10. Click the Log Files tab to configure output file settings. 11. Set the Log file type to be binary. 12. Ensure that End file names with is turned on and the drop down is set to yymmddhh. 13. Click the Configure button to open the Configure Log Files dialog. 17
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 14. Using the Location text box, enter the directory location you would like output log files to be placed. The location should be configured to be the directory that we created in Basic Setup. For example: C:\SCMonitoring\. 15. Using the File name text box, enter the name you would like your trace files filenames to begin with. 16. Leave Log file size at Maximum limit. 17. Click OK to close the Configure Log Files dialog and return to the settings dialog. 18. On the settings dialog click the Schedule tab. 19. On the Schedule tab configure the log to be started and stopped manually be selecting both Manually radio buttons. 20. Click the OK button to apply your changes and close the settings dialog. You will now see the ShipConstructor Performance Log listed in the Counter Logs list. 18
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data Starting a Perfmon Log 1. Start Perfmon by clicking the Windows Start Menu, clicking Run, typing perfmon in the text box and then clicking Ok. 2. Expand the Performance Logs and Alerts tree and select Counter Logs. Your ShipConstructor Server Log performance log should be displayed in the right panel. 3. Right-click on the ShipConstructor Server Log settings object and click Start. The icon will change from red to green indicating that the log has been started. The log will continue to run in the background even if Perfmon is closed. 19
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data Stopping a Perfmon Log 1. Start Perfmon by clicking the Windows Start Menu, clicking Run, typing perfmon in the text box and then clicking Ok. 2. Expand the Performance Logs and Alerts tree and select Counter Logs. Your ShipConstructor Server Log performance log should be displayed in the right panel. 3. Right-click on the ShipConstructor Server Log settings object and click Stop. The icon will change from green to red indicating that the log has been stopped. Reviewing Perfmon Data 20 1. Start Perfmon by clicking the Windows Start Menu, clicking Run, typing perfmon in the text box and then clicking Ok. 2. In the Console Root tree in the left pane select System Monitor. A running graph is displayed of some current system activity.
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 3. Click Ctrl-L to activate the View Log Data command. The System Monitor Properties dialog is displayed. 4. Activate the Log File radio button. 5. Click the Add button to open the Select Log File dialog. 6. Browse to the Perfmon log file that you wish to review, select it and click Open. 7. Click Apply on the System Monitor Properties dialog. The file has now been opened for review. You can modify the currently viewed time range in the file by dragging the sliders in the Total Range slider bar. 8. On the System Monitor Properties dialog click the Data tab. The source log files may contain data from a large number of counters. The Counters list on the Data tab shows the subset of counters that you are currently viewing from the log file. 21
Appendix 2 22 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data
Appendix 2 9. Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data Click the Add.. button to display a list of counters contained in the log file(s) you selected on the Source tab. 10. Select the counters and instances you would like to review and click the Add button. When all desired counters have been added click Close. You will see your counters listed in the Counters list on the Data tab of the System Monitor Properties dialog. 11. Click OK to close the System Monitor Properties dialog. You will now see a graph containing data from all the counters you have selected. 23
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 12. In the bottom pane listing the visible counters, right click on a counter and click Properties. The System Monitor Properties dialog is displayed. 24
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data 13. Change the color and scale of each counter to improve the appearance and readability of your graph. 14. Click OK to apply your changes and return to the graph. 25
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data Performance Counters Investigating Memory Performance Performance Object Counter Instance Notes MSSQL Buffer Management Buffer Cache Hit Ratio 95% is good MSSQL Buffer Management Page Life Expectancy The higher the better MSSQL Plan Cache Cache Hit Ratio 95% is good MSSQL Memory Management Total Server Memory Amount of memory the SQL Server instance is using. MSSQL Memory Management Target Server Memory Amount of memory the SQL would use if it was available. Large discrepancies between Total Memory and Target Memory should be investigated and could indicate a memory bottleneck. Memory Pages/sec not applicable The lower the better. Higher than 50 indicates more memory may help. Investigating CPU Performance Performance Object Counter Instance Notes Processor %Processor Time See notes One instance will be listed for each processor core on the server. Add one counter for each processor core. Monitoring the _total instance is not necessary Process % Processor Time sqlsvr Each instance of SQL Server running on your server will create an additional sqlsvr.exe process. Shutdown all SQL Server instances except the one you want to monitor so that it can be clearly identified Investigating Disk Performance 26 Performance Object Counter Instance Notes Physical Disk % Idle Time See notes One instance will be listed for each disk array in your system. One counter should be added for each array. Monitoring the _total instance is not necessary.
Appendix 2 Using Perfmon to gather hardware and SQL Server performance data Physical Disk Avg. Disk Read Queue Length See notes One instance will be listed for each disk array in your system. One counter should be added for each array. Monitoring the _total instance is not necessary. Physical Disk Avg. Disk Write Queue Length See notes One instance will be listed for each disk array in your system. One counter should be added for each array. Monitoring the _total instance is not necessary. Baseline Metrics These counters can be added to any monitoring task to help to baseline the activity that is occurring on the server. Performance Object Counter Instance MSSQL:SQL Statistics Batch Requests/sec Not applicable MSSQL:General Statistics User Connections Not applicable Notes 27
Index Index No index entries found. 29