1. MariaDB - 64% faster on POWER8 than on Intel
MariaDB 10.1 can process 1.2 million queries per second
The pressure on costs is endless and at Quru, we believe it is system ‘consolidation’ that
potentially promises major reductions in data centre costs (space + power + cooling)
together with lower service contract costs. We have recently been focused on consolidating
servers and adding extra compute capacity in the same footprint as a way to enable lower
costs and increase application performance.
However, consolidation requires a platform that can rapidly and easily both scale-up and
scale-out. This technical Insight white paper covers benchmark testing we have undertaken
ofMariaDB on IBM POWER8 - a combination that promises a step change in consolidating
systems and the opportunity to significantly enhance application performance. Our work in
tuning workloads has demonstrated that MariaDB on POWER8 can lead to lower costs and
increased datacentre efficiency.
+44 (0) 20 71 60 2882
@quru
linkedin.com/company/quru
info@quru.com
MariaDB on IBM POWER8
Benchmark Performance Testing
In partnership with:

2. QURU INSIGHTS 2QURU INSIGHTS
The IBM PowerLinux platform, based on the POWER8 series ofprocessors, provides unparalleled levels of
performance and scalability with features not available in other mainstream platforms. Ofthese perhaps the most
significant is that the POWER8 processors include up to 8 hardware threads per CPU core, hence a humble 2U, 2-
socket system can deliver up to 1 60 threads. Today, no other vendor can offer this capability.
MariaDB 1 0.1 contains many new features that enable high performance – in particular scalability on massively
multithreaded hardware. So, MariaDB have already published benchmark results showing that MariaDB 1 0.1 running
on POWER8 systems is capable of1 .2M queries per second when all 1 60 threads are employed.
The next stage is to identify how the above
performance ofMariaDB 1 0.1 on POWER8 compares
to the Intel based systems in the market. today.
There are many ways to benchmark a system, but at
present a 2-socket platform from Intel providing 1 60
threads is not available. A typical system at a similar
price point to the IBM Power S822L benchmarked in
our tests may well use two Haswell v3 architecture
Xeon E5 processors, featuring 1 0 cores each, with two
hardware threads per core, i.e. a total of40 threads.
Our test system was a SuperMicro server and had 40
hardware threads, 1 28GB RAM, and SSD backed
storage, and employed the E5-2650 v3 chip, running at
2.30GHz (with turbo boost to 3.0GHz).
To perform a directly comparable test, we configured a
PowerKVM virtual machine on our S822L featuring 40
threads (2 sockets, 1 0 cores per sockets, 2 threads per
core – directly comparable to the Intel platform) and
1 28GB RAM. To remove variability oftest results based
on disk performance variations, the test database was
constructed in memory and run from there on both
platforms. Whilst this would not be a real world setup, it
removes from the equation any possible storage
bottlenecks - it is fair to assume that a performance
database would be stored on a high performance
storage array where I/O bottlenecks are less ofan issue.
MariaDB 1 0.1 was then configured identically on each
system and the sysbench 0.5 benchmark run using
identical settings on both systems to produce
comparable benchmarks. The results are quite notable.
POWER8 & MariaDB 10.1 vs. Intel benchmark test
We can see that with a read-only OLTP test, the S822L system is approximately 64% faster than
the Intel system, in spite of having exactly the same number of threads and the same amount of
memory.

3. QURU INSIGHTS 3
This is not the end ofthe story. The POWER8
platform development toolchain, provides access to a
suite oftools not available on other platforms, and
which enable powerful tuning and optimization
techniques to be performed on existing software.
Taking advantage ofthis capability, we then undertook
a tuning and optimization process specifically on the
MariaDB test workload we had already used and
achieved results 64% faster than on Intel.
This second testing exercise - which we have not seen
anywhere else in the market at this time - produced a
dramatic performance improvement over the original
build ofMariaDB we tested, achieving benchmarks ofat
least 1 5% faster than seen on the un-tuned software.
Adding this to the high performance ofthe POWER8
platform results in a gain of93% over the reference
Intel platform, even though both systems have the same
number ofhardware threads enabled.
UniqueTesting Exercise
Going back to the first testing we undertook, our S822L
had only 40 ofits 1 60 threads in use, hence it would be
possible to either scale up or scale out the MariaDB
virtual machine; after all we already know that at 1 60
threads, more than 1 000,000 QPS is achievable under
the same test conditions as performed here.
With the improved performance ofPOWER8 over Intel
Haswell v3 for this workload, it may be that the
configuration is entirely sufficient. Ifso, there is ample
headroom for additional VMs on the S822L, for
example to run 4 equivalent database VMs.
Alternatively, ifapplications are not performing well,
more threads/CPU can be allocated to enhance their
performance, scaling MariaDB 1 0.1 from 64% faster than
Intel using 40 threads to a massive 1 25% faster when all
1 60 threads are allocated to MariaDB.
Hence it is likely that many use cases will attain the
performance they require whilst using only a fraction of
the hardware resources available on the POWER8
platform. This releases capacity to run more VMs and
applications alongside it and means that consolidation
through MariaDB on POWER8 really can lead to lower
costs and increased efficiency in the datacentre.
In contrast, a 40-thread Intel based system would be
almost fully utilized by the above configuration and
hence the only way to scale up, or scale out, would be
to purchase additional hardware. This would obviously
involve increased capital and operational expenditure,
and require more datacenter space, cooling, and power.
MariaDB is proven to run at 1M QPS on POWER8 when all 160 threads are dedicated to it -
however the Quru optimised version of MariaDB will run at 1.2M QPS

4. QURU INSIGHTS 4
IBM’s Power System is a mature, highly scalable and
high performance RISC architecture featuring multi-
core, multi-terabyte memory servers combined with
open software architectures.
MariaDB is the trusted adviser for the world’s leading
MariaDB and MySQL users with a rich heritage of
database expertise. MariaDB Enterprise forms part of
the most robust ecosystems in open source software
with strong endorsement from leading technology
vendors such as Red Hat, IBM, SuSE, Intel and Google.
MariaDB is an integral part ofIBM’s TurboLAMP stack,
a full infrastructure stack optimized for POWER8.
MariaDB has been ported to Linux on Power, but there
is more to it than just recompiling the code. MariaDB is
built using IBM Advance ToolChain on POWER8 to
ensure maximum stability and performance. In addition,
MariaDB has added code changes to optimize for use
with the POWER8 architecture, increase its stability and
to take full benefit ofPOWER8 features.
Benchmarks performed by MariaDB Corporation and
IBM show MariaDB delivering nearly four times the
single-core performance on POWER8 vs. equivalent
x86-based servers. Hence, MariaDB Enterprise is the
ideal subscription to increase the performance ofsingle
servers on POWER8 in a scale-out architecture.
MariaDB was built from source using the IBM Advance
Toolchain version 8.0. Binaries were build unstripped.
IBM's FDPR tool (Feedback Directed Program
Restructuring) was then run against the mysqld binary
produced to optimize the binary against the sysbench
workload, and the benchmarks were repeated.
For more details on benchmark configuration and setup
as used in this whitepaper, please visit the following link:
http://quru.com/whitepapers/madiadbonpower8/
We are confident that the IBM POWER8 platform
offers significant opportunities for consolidating
workloads or achieving higher performance on existing
workloads, or any combination ofthe two.
Tuning and optimization such as this is highly workload
dependent, and each workload will have to be tuned
differently to achieve the best results. Previous work by
Quru has proved that tuning can vastly improve the
performance ofworkloads on the IBM POWER
platform and we are currently working with IBM on
tuning these workloads to achieve even higher
performance levels without any changes to hardware
specification.
Quru is very well placed to do this, with extensive
experience in tuning and optimizing software for the
IBM PowerLinux platform, and can help your business
achieve even better results from the IBM POWER8
platform.
For more information on how your organisation can
improve the performance ofMariaDB on IBM
POWER8, call Robin Porter on +44 (0) 20 71 60 2882.
Quru - experts in performance gains via tuning
About Quru
Quru is a market leader in the technical
development, deployment and support ofLinux
and open source solutions that help organisations
to reduce costs and increase operational agility
and capability. We have also developed multiple
award-winning software solutions ranging from
mobile phone apps to global enterprise systems.
+44 (0) 20 71 60 2882
@quru
linkedin.com/company/quru
info@quru.com
Market leading technology - IBM POWER
MariaDB optimized for POWER8