News
Linux Cluster Beats W2K System in TPC-H Benchmark
- By Scott Bekker
- 05/16/2001
A cluster of boxes running Linux dramatically ended Microsoft's monopoly on a key decision support benchmark and bounced Redmond out of first place in the category.
The benchmark is the Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-H benchmark for ad-hoc decision support queries in the 100 GB size category.
From March 2000 until earlier this month, only system vendors running Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000 published results (nine in all) with the TPC in the category.
Then a cluster of four SGI 1450 four-processor servers running Linux 2.4.3 and IBM's new 7.2 version of its DB2 UDB database scored 2,733 QphH (queries per hour on the TPC-H benchmark).
The result was a 60 percent performance improvement over the top Windows 2000/SQL Server 2000 result, run on an eight-processor Compaq ProLiant 8000 in July 2000.
Microsoft's versions still have Linux beat on price in the category. The Linux cluster cost three-and-a-half times more than the Compaq system. –
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.