VMware Sets Virtualization Performance Records for Database and Web Workloads

By VSM News Staff
published: Wednesday, February 25 2009

VMware Demonstrates Ability to Host Customers' Most Demanding Applications with Record-Breaking Performance Serving 534,000 Transactions per Minute.

VMworld Europe 2009 - CANNES, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today at VMworld Europe 2009, VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced a series of performance records on VMware's currently available ESX 3.5 and an internal version expected to be released later this year. These recently released throughput and efficiency demonstrations illustrate how VMware infrastructure can support workloads with throughputs that greatly exceed even the most demanding customer needs.

In today's keynote session, VMware Chief Technology Officer Dr. Stephen Herrod unveiled a new high water mark in virtualized database performance. Running a resource-intensive OLTP benchmark, based on a fair-use implementation of the TPC-C* workload specification, VMware achieved 85 percent of native performance when running Oracle DB on VMware ESX. This workload, which demonstrated 8,900 database transactions per second and 60,000 disk input/outputs per second (IOPS), is the most resource-intensive load ever shown in a virtual environment to date.

To put these numbers in perspective, according to a VMware Capacity Planner study of 15,000 Oracle databases, the average Oracle database executes approximated 100 transactions per second and generates roughly 1,200 storage operations per second. This single virtual machine instance that was discussed today served 89 times more transactions than the same deployment, and was capable of performing work that required 50 times more storage throughput than the average four-processor Oracle database. With this demonstration, all but a very small segment of database deployments become attractive targets for VMware virtualization.

"In the past, there was a perception that demanding databases such as Oracle were not suitable candidates for virtualization," said Dr. Herrod. "These record-setting throughputs at near-native performance prove that VMware's maximum capabilities exceed the server needs of most customers. This makes virtualizing database environments a viable solution for those looking to reduce IT costs by consolidating servers and increasing business continuity."

Dr. Herrod presented these ESX performance results using Oracle as the database next to other results of a test against Microsoft SQL Server. The SQL Server results used an OLTP benchmark based on a fair-use implementation of the TPC-E* workload specification. In that case, a virtual machine with four virtual CPUs was shown to run at 90 percent efficiency with respect to native. Both reported numbers were based on a version of ESX being developed by VMware with expected release this year.

Oracle and SQL Server databases require efficient virtual machines capable of very high levels of throughput. Both of the database numbers presented today were based on single VM performance. Paired with VMware's recent announcement of world record consolidated web server performance, VMware has shown new maximums with single virtual machines and multi-VM consolidation environments.

With VMware's virtualization platform, customers can virtualize even the most recourse-intensive applications. This allows multiple virtual machines to share physical resources, run unmodified operating systems and applications with ease and run applications side by side on the same server. By consolidating servers, IT costs can be reduced while flexibility is improved, and ROI can be realized through better business continuity and even reduced energy costs.

About VMware

VMware (NYSE:VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 130,000 customers and more than 22,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC). For more information, visit www.vmware.com.