Help Center> Relational Database Service> Performance White Paper> RDS for SQL Server> Test Method
Updated on 2022-10-31 GMT+08:00
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Test Method

Huawei Cloud RDS for SQL Server is an online Microsoft SQL Server-compatible relational database service. RDS for SQL Server can provide more secure, reliable, stable services than the open-source database of the Community Edition. Based on the primary/standby architecture, it provides all necessary functions you need, including backup, restoration, monitoring, and migration. It supports two billing modes: yearly/monthly and pay-per use.

Test Environment

  • ECS specifications: high-performance computing | hc2.2xlarge.2 | 8 vCPUs | 16 GB, SSD disk, 200 GB of storage, Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard 64 bit image and VPC network

Test Tool

HammerDB is a graphical open-source database stress testing and benchmarking tool for Linux and Windows to test databases running on any operating system. HammerDB is automated, multi-threaded and extensible with dynamic scripting support. You can use HammerDB to create a test schema, load data, and simulate workloads of multiple virtual users on databases in online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytical processing (OLAP) scenarios.

HammerDB 2.19 is used as an example. Download the latest version.

HammerDB started

Test Benchmarks

The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) is a non-profit corporation founded to define transaction processing and database benchmarks and to disseminate objective, verifiable performance data to the industry. TPC provides multiple test benchmarks, such as TPC-A, TPC-C, and TPC-H. For details, see the official document. TPC-C is an OLTP benchmark. It is different from and more complex than TPC-A because of its multiple transaction types, complex databases, and overall execution structure.

This test uses the TPC-C test benchmark.

The test model is developed by Huawei Cloud based on HammerDB without any optimization and modification on the model structure.

Test Procedure

  1. Start HammerDB.

    Figure 1 HammerDB started

  2. In the Benchmark area, double-click SQL Server. In the displayed dialog box, select MSSQL Server and TPC-C, and click OK.

    Figure 2 Benchmark Options

  3. Configure the connection information and create the object database tpcc.

    Choose SQL Server > TPC-C > Schema Build and double-click Options.

    In the displayed dialog box, select Updated for Schema.

    Figure 3 Microsoft SQL Server TPC-C Build Options

  4. Choose SQL Server > TPC-C > Schema Build > Build. In the displayed dialog box, click Yes to create a schema.

    Figure 4 Build

    Wait until the initialization is complete.

    Figure 5 Initialization completed

  5. Click to stop the execution.

    Figure 6 Execution stopped

  6. Select SQL Server > TPC-C > Driver Script and double-click Options to ensure that the connection information is correct.

    Figure 7 Checking the connection information

  7. Choose SQL Server > TPC-C > Driver Script and double-click Load.

    Figure 8 Load

  8. Choose SQL Server > TPC-C > Virtual User and double-click Options. In the displayed dialog box, you can adjust the number of virtual users repeatedly to generate test results until the Transactions Per Minute (TPM) peak values become consistent. TPM is an important benchmark for measuring database performance.

    You are advised not to select Show Output because the client may not respond.

  9. Click Yes.

  10. Choose Virtual User and double-click Run until the TPM peak value is stable.

    Figure 9 Stable TPM peak value

Parent topic: RDS for SQL Server