Stress testing database storage

• US 6,859,758 B1
• Filed: 11/12/2002
• Issued: 02/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Christensen, Brian, Prabhakaran, Kothandaraman, Wence, Don
• Primary Examiner(s): Assouad, Patrick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Charioui, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US10/292,616
• Time in Patent Office: 833 Days
• Field of Search: 702/80, 702/81, 702/90, 702118-123, 702/176, 702/177, 702/178, 702/179, 702/181, 702/182, 702/183, 702/184, 702/186, 702/188, 711/112, 711/129, 711/173, 709/224, 707/200, 707/1, 703/13, 714/32, 714/38, 714/715
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3428 Benchmarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions

Abstract

A method and system for stress testing database storage. Stress testing software generates read and/or write commands to a database engine. Preferably, the read and write commands adhere to a desired ratio of reads to writes. The commands are interpreted by the database engine. The database engine issues read and/or write instructions to a database storage system. Multiple instances of the stress testing software may be spawned against a plurality of databases in order to achieve a desired aggregate rate of operations to the database storage system. Performance measurements of the database storage system are obtained and may be used for evaluation of the database storage system. Advantageously, the performance of a database storage system may be tested and measured without the encumbrances of transaction processing overhead due to actual database processing.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for stress testing a database storage system comprising:

assigning a read to write ratio for operations to said database storage system;

initiating a plurality of processes to achieve a rate of operations to said database storage system;

generating read and write operations from said processes to said database storage system corresponding to said read to write ratio; and

collecting performance statistics of said database storage system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating comprises said processes sending commands to a database engine.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said database engine forms read and/or write operations to said database storage system in response to said commands from said processes.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said database engine is substantially compliant with structured query language.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said read and write operations are interleaved according to a random distribution.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said random distribution is substantially a Poisson distribution.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein software of said processes is written in a cross-platform language.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said cross-platform language is substantially compliant with Java.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating random data for said write operations to said database storage system.

10. A method for stress testing a database storage system comprising:

receiving first commands at a database engine software module from a plurality of stress test software modules, said first commands to retrieve records of information from a database, wherein said plurality of stress test software modules achieve in aggregate a desired rate of transfers of said records of information from said database storage system to said database engine software module and wherein said plurality of stress test software modules ignore content of said records of information; and

issuing second commands from said database engine software module to said database storage system to retrieve said records of information.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein software of said stress test software modules are written in a cross-platform language.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said cross-platform language is substantially compliant with Java.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein said first commands are substantially compliant with structured query language.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein at least two of said stress test software modules operate on separate computer systems.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising measuring performance of said database storage system.

16. A system of computers comprising:

a plurality of computers coupled to a network;

an enterprise storage system coupled to said network;

a database engine software module operative on one of said plurality of computers;

said plurality of computers also for performing a method of stress testing database storage by;

receiving first commands at a database engine software module from a plurality of stress test software modules, said first commands to retrieve records of information from a database, wherein said plurality of stress test software modules achieve in aggregate a desired rate of transfers of said records of information from said database storage system to said database engine software module and wherein said plurality of stress test software modules ignore content of said records of information; and

issuing second commands from said database engine software module to said database storage system to retrieve said records of information.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein instructions for said sending are written in a cross-platform language.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein said cross-platform language is substantially compliant with Java.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein said first commands are substantially compliant with structured query language.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein at least two separate computer systems send said first commands.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising measuring performance of said database storage system.

22. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein for causing a computer system to perform a method for stress testing a database storage system, said method comprising:

receiving first commands at a database engine software module from a plurality of stress test software modules, said first commands to retrieve records of information from a database, wherein said plurality of stress test software modules achieve in aggregate a desired rate of transfers of said records of information from said database storage system to said database engine software module and wherein said plurality of stress test software modules ignore content of said records of information; and

issuing second commands from said database engine software module to said database storage system to retrieve said records of information.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein software of said stress test software modules are written in a cross-platform language.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein said cross-platform language is substantially compliant with Java.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein said first commands are substantially compliant with structured query language.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein at least two of said stress test software modules operate on separate computer systems.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 further comprising computer-readable program code for measuring performance of said database storage system.