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Sybase FAQ: 9/19 - ASE Admin (6 of 7)


Archive-name: databases/sybase-faq/part9
URL: http://www.isug.com/Sybase_FAQ
Version: 1.7
Maintainer: David Owen
Last-modified: 2003/01/17
Posting-Frequency: posted every 3rd month
   A how-to-find-the-FAQ article is posted on the intervening months.

1.5.7: How much memory to configure?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System 10 and below.

Overview

At some point you'll wonder if your ASE has been configured with sufficient
memory. We hope that it's not during some crisis but that's probably when it'll
happen.

The most important thing in setting up memory for a ASE is that it has to be
large enough to accommodate:

  * concurrent user connections
  * active procedures
  * and concurrent open databases.

By not setting the ASE up correctly it will affect the performance of it. A
delicate balance needs to be struck where your ASE is large enough to
accommodate the users but not too large where it adversely affects the CPU
Server (such as causing swapping).

Assumptions made of the reader:

  * The reader has some experience administering ASEs.
  * All queries have been tuned and that there are no unnecessary table scans.

Preface

As the ASE starts up, it pre-allocates its structures to support the
configuration. The memory that remains after the pre-allocation phase is the 
available cache.

The available cache is partitioned into two pieces:

 1. buffer cache - data pages to be sent to a user connection or flushed to
    disk.
 2. procedure cache - where query plans live.

The idea is to determine if the buffer cache and the procedure cache are of
adequate size. As a DBA you can use dbcc memusage to ascertain this.

The information provided from a dbcc memusage, daunting at first, but taken in
sections, is easy to understand and provides the DBA with the vital information
that is necessary to determine if more memory is required and where it is
required.

If the procedure cache is too small, user connections will get sporadic 701's:

    There is insufficient system memory to run this query.
   
If the buffer cache is too small, response time may be poor or spiky.

The following text describes how to interpret the output of dbcc memusage and
to correlate this back to the fundamental question:

    Does my ASE have enough memory?
   
Definitions

Before delving into the world of dbcc memusage some definitions to get us
through.

Buffer Cache (also referred to as the Data Cache)
    Area of memory where ASE stores the most recently used data pages and index
    pages in 2K page units. If ASE finds a data page or index page in the
    buffer cache, it doesn't need to perform a physical I/O (it is reported as
    a logical I/O). If a user connection selects data from a database, the ASE
    loads the 2K data page(s) here and then hands the information off to the
    user connection. If a user connection updates data, these pages are
    altered, and then they are flushed out to disk by the ASE.
   
       
        This is a bit simplistic but it'll do. Read on for more info though.
       
        The cache is maintained as a doubly linked list. The head of the list
        is where the most recently used pages are placed. Naturally towards the
        tail of the chain are the least recently used pages. If a page is
        requested and it is found on the chain, it is moved back to the front
        of the chain and the information is relayed, thus saving a physical I/
        O.
       
        But wait! this recycling is not done forever. When a checkpoint occurs
        any dirty pages are flushed. Also, the parameter cbufwashsize
        determines how many times a page containing data can be recycled before
        it has to be flushed out to disk. For OAM and index pages the following
        parameters apply coamtrips and cindextrips respectively.
       
Procedure Cache
    Area of memory where ASE stores the most recently used query plans of
    stored procedures and triggers. This procedure cache is also used by the
    Server when a procedure is being created and when a query is being
    compiled. Just like the buffer cache, if SQL Server finds a procedure or a
    compilation already in this cache, it doesn't need to read it from the
    disk.
   
    The size of procedure cache is determined by the percentage of remaining
    memory configured for this Server parameter after ASE memory needs are met.
   
Available Cache

When the ASE starts up it pre-allocates its data structures to support the
current configuration. For example, based on the number of user connections, 
additional netmem, open databases and so forth the dataserver pre-allocates how
much memory it requires to support these configured items.

What remains after the pre-allocation is the available cache. The available
cache is divided into buffer cache and procedure cache. The sp_configure
"procedure cache" parameter determines the percentage breakdown. A value of 20
would read as follows:

    20% of the available cache is dedicated to the procedure cache and 80% is
    dedicated to the buffer cache.
   
Your pal: dbcc memusage

dbcc memusage takes a snapshot of your ASE's current memory usage and reports
this vital information back to you. The information returned provides
information regarding the use of your procedure cache and how much of the 
buffer cache you are currently using.

An important piece of information is the size of the largest query plan. We'll
talk about that more below.

It is best to run dbcc memusage after your ASE has reached a working set. For
example, at the end of the day or during lunch time.

    Running dbcc memusage will freeze the dataserver while it does its work.
    The more memory you have configured for the ASE the longer it'll take. Our
    experience is that for a ASE with 300MB it'll take about four minutes to
    execute. During this time, nothing else will execute: no user queries, no
    sp_who's...
   
In order to run dbcc memusage you must have sa privileges. Here's a sample
execution for discussion purposes:

1> /* send the output to the screen instead of errorlog */
2> dbcc traceon(3604)
3> go
1> dbcc memusage
2> go
Memory Usage:

                            Meg.         2K Blks           Bytes

      Configured Memory:300.0000          153600        314572800

              Code size:  2.6375            1351         2765600
      Kernel Structures: 77.6262           39745        81396975
      Server Structures: 54.4032           27855        57045920
             Page Cache:129.5992           66355        135894640
           Proc Buffers:  1.1571             593         1213340
           Proc Headers: 25.0840           12843        26302464

Number of page buffers:    63856
Number of proc buffers:    15964

Buffer Cache, Top 20:

           DB Id         Object Id      Index Id        2K Buffers

               6         927446498             0            9424
               6         507969006             0            7799
               6         959446612             0            7563
               6         116351649             0            7428
               6        2135014687             5            2972
               6         607445358             0            2780
               6         507969006             2            2334
               6        2135014687             0            2047
               6         506589013             0            1766
               6        1022066847             0            1160
               6         116351649           255             987
               6         927446498             8             897
               6         927446498            10             733
               6         959446612             7             722
               6         506589013             1             687
               6         971918604             0             686
               6         116351649             6             387

Procedure Cache, Top 20:

Database Id: 6
Object Id: 1652357121
Object Name: lp_cm_case_list
Version: 1
Uid: 1
Type: stored procedure
Number of trees: 0
Size of trees: 0.000000 Mb, 0.000000 bytes, 0 pages
Number of plans: 16
Size of plans: 0.323364 Mb, 339072.000000 bytes, 176 pages
----
Database Id: 6
Object Id: 1668357178
Object Name: lp_cm_subcase_list
Version: 1
Uid: 1
Type: stored procedure
Number of trees: 0
Size of trees: 0.000000 Mb, 0.000000 bytes, 0 pages
Number of plans: 10
Size of plans: 0.202827 Mb, 212680.000000 bytes, 110 pages
----
Database Id: 6
Object Id: 132351706
Object Name: csp_get_case
Version: 1
Uid: 1
Type: stored procedure
Number of trees: 0
Size of trees: 0.000000 Mb, 0.000000 bytes, 0 pages
Number of plans: 9
Size of plans: 0.149792 Mb, 157068.000000 bytes, 81 pages
----
Database Id: 6
Object Id: 1858261845
Object Name: lp_get_last_caller_new
Version: 1
Uid: 1
Type: stored procedure
Number of trees: 0
Size of trees: 0.000000 Mb, 0.000000 bytes, 0 pages
Number of plans: 2
Size of plans: 0.054710 Mb, 57368.000000 bytes, 30 pages
...

1> /* redirect output back to the errorlog */
2> dbcc traceoff(3604)
3> go

Dissecting memusage output

The output may appear overwhelming but it's actually pretty easy to parse.
Let's look at each section.

Memory Usage

This section provides a breakdown of the memory configured for the ASE.

Memory Usage:

                            Meg.         2K Blks           Bytes

      Configured Memory:300.0000          153600        314572800

              Code size:  2.6375            1351         2765600
      Kernel Structures: 77.6262           39745        81396975
      Server Structures: 54.4032           27855        57045920
             Page Cache:129.5992           66355        135894640
           Proc Buffers:  1.1571             593         1213340
           Proc Headers: 25.0840           12843        26302464

Number of page buffers:    63856
Number of proc buffers:    15964

   
    The Configured Memory does not equal the sum of the individual components.
    It does in the sybooks example but in practice it doesn't always. This is
    not critical and it is simply being noted here.
   
The Kernel Structures and Server structures are of mild interest. They can be
used to cross-check that the pre-allocation is what you believe it to be. The
salient line items are Number of page buffers and Number of proc buffers.

The Number of proc buffers translates directly to the number of 2K pages
available for the procedure cache.

The Number of page buffers is the number of 2K pages available for the buffer
cache.

As a side note and not trying to muddle things, these last two pieces of
information can also be obtained from the errorlog:

    ... Number of buffers in buffer cache: 63856.
    ... Number of proc buffers allocated: 15964.

In our example, we have 15,964 2K pages (~32MB) for the procedure cache and
63,856 2K pages (~126MB) for the buffer cache.

Buffer Cache

The buffer cache contains the data pages that the ASE will be either flushing
to disk or transmitting to a user connection.

If this area is too small, the ASE must flush 2K pages sooner than might be
necessary to satisfy a user connection's request.

For example, in most database applications there are small edit tables that are
used frequently by the application. These tables will populate the buffer cache
and normally will remain resident during the entire life of the ASE. This is
good because a user connection may request validation and the ASE will find the
data page(s) resident in memory. If however there is insufficient memory
configured, then these small tables will be flushed out of the buffer cache in
order to satisfy another query. The next time a validation is requested, the
tables will have to be re-read from disk in order to satisfy the request. Your
performance will degrade.

Memory access is easily an order of magnitude faster than performing a physical
I/O.

In this example we know from the previous section that we have 63,856 2K pages
(or buffers) available in the buffer cache. The question to answer is, "do we
have sufficient buffer cache configured?"

The following is the output of the dbcc memusage regarding the buffer cache:

Buffer Cache, Top 20:

           DB Id         Object Id      Index Id        2K Buffers

               6         927446498             0            9424
               6         507969006             0            7799
               6         959446612             0            7563
               6         116351649             0            7428
               6        2135014687             5            2972
               6         607445358             0            2780
               6         507969006             2            2334
               6        2135014687             0            2047
               6         506589013             0            1766
               6        1022066847             0            1160
               6         116351649           255             987
               6         927446498             8             897
               6         927446498            10             733
               6         959446612             7             722
               6         506589013             1             687
               6         971918604             0             686
               6         116351649             6             387
         Index Legend          
                        +-----------------------------+                        
                        |       |                     |                        
                        |-------+---------------------|                        
                        | Value |     Definition      |                        
                        |-------+---------------------|                        
                        | 0     | Table data          |                        
                        |-------+---------------------|                        
                        | 1     | Clustered index     |                        
                        |-------+---------------------|                        
                        | 2-250 | Nonclustered        |                        
                        |       | indexes             |                        
                        |-------+---------------------|                        
                        | 255   | Text pages          |                        
                        +-----------------------------+                        

  * To translate the DB Id use select db_name(#) to map back to the database
    name.
  * To translate the Object Id, use the respective database and use the select
    object_name(#) command.

It's obvious that the first 10 items take up the largest portion of the buffer
cache. Sum these values and compare the result to the amount of buffer cache
configured.

Summing the 10 items nets a result of 45,263 2K data pages. Comparing that to
the number of pages configured, 63,856, we see that this ASE has sufficient
memory configured.

When do I need more Buffer Cache?

I follow the following rules of thumb to determine when I need more buffer
cache:

  * If the sum of all the entries reported is equal to the number of pages
    configured and all entries are relatively the same size. Crank it up.
  * Note the natural groupings that occur in the example. If the difference
    between any of the groups is greater than an order of magnitude I'd be
    suspicious. But only if the sum of the larger groups is very close to the
    number of pages configured.

Procedure Cache

If the procedure cache is not of sufficient size you may get sporadic 701
errors:

    There is insufficient system memory to run this query.
   
In order to calculate the correct procedure cache one needs to apply the
following formula (found in ASE Troubleshooting Guide - Chapter 2, Procedure
Cache Sizing):

    proc cache size = max(# of concurrent users) * (size of the largest plan) *
    1.25
   
        The flaw with the above formula is that if 10% of the users are
        executing the largest plan, then you'll overshoot. If you have distinct
        classes of connections whose largest plans are mutually exclusive then
        you need to account for that:
       
            ttl proc cache = proc cache size * x% + proc cache size * y% ...
           
The max(# of concurrent users) is not the number of user connections configured
but rather the actual number of connections during the peak period.

To compute the size of the largest [query] plan take the results from the dbcc
memusage's, Procedure Cache section and apply the following formula:

    query plan size = [size of plans in bytes] / [number of plans]
   
We can compute the size of the query plan for lp_cm_case_list by using the
output of the dbcc memusage:

...
Database Id: 6
Object Id: 1652357121
Object Name: lp_cm_case_list
Version: 1
Uid: 1
Type: stored procedure
Number of trees: 0
Size of trees: 0.000000 Mb, 0.000000 bytes, 0 pages
Number of plans: 16
Size of plans: 0.323364 Mb, 339072.000000 bytes, 176 pages
----
...

Entering the respective numbers, the query plan size for lp_cm_case_list is
21K:

    query plan size = 339072 / 16
    query plan size = 21192 bytes or 21K
   
The formula would be applied to all objects found in the procedure cache and
the largest value would be plugged into the procedure cache size formula:

         Query Plan Sizes         
                      +--------------------------------+                       
                      |                        |       |                       
                      |------------------------+-------|                       
                      |                        | Query |                       
                      |         Object         | Plan  |                       
                      |                        | Size  |                       
                      |------------------------+-------|                       
                      | lp_cm_case_list        | 21K   |                       
                      |------------------------+-------|                       
                      | lp_cm_subcase_list     | 21K   |                       
                      |------------------------+-------|                       
                      | csp_get_case           | 19K   |                       
                      |------------------------+-------|                       
                      | lp_get_last_caller_new | 28K   |                       
                      +--------------------------------+                       

The size of the largest [query] plan is 28K.

Entering these values into the formula:

    proc cache size = max(# of concurrent users) * (size of the largest plan) *
    1.25
    proc cache size = 491 connections * 28K * 1.25
    proc cache size = 17,185 2K pages required
   
Our example ASE has 15,964 2K pages configured but 17,185 2K pages are
required. This ASE can benefit by having more procedure cache configured.

This can be done one of two ways:

 1. If you have some headroom in your buffer cache, then sp_configure
    "procedure cache" to increase the ratio of procedure cache to buffer cache
    or
   
        procedure cache =
            [ proposed procedure cache ] /
            ( [ current procedure cache ] + [ current buffer cache ] )
       
        The new procedure cache would be 22%:
       
            procedure cache = 17,185 / ( 15,964 + 63,856 )
            procedure cache = .2152 or 22%
           
 2. If the buffer cache cannot be shrunken, then sp_configure "memory" to
    increase the total memory:
   
        mem size =
            ([ proposed procedure cache ]) /
            ([ current procedure cache ] / [ current configured memory ])
       
        The new memory size would be 165,399 2K pages, assuming that the
        procedure cache is unchanged:
       
            mem size = 17,185 / ( 15,964 / 153,600 )
            mem size = 165,399 2K pages
           
Back to top

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.5.8: Why should I use stored procedures?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are many advantages to using stored procedures (unfortunately they do not
handle the text/image types):

  * Security - you can revoke access to the base tables and only allow users to
    access and manipulate the data via the stored procedures.
  * Performance - stored procedures are parsed and a query plan is compiled.
    This information is stored in the system tables and it only has to be done
    once.
  * Network - if you have users who are on a WAN (slow connection) having
    stored procedures will improve throughput because less bytes need to flow
    down the wire from the client to ASE.
  * Tuning - if you have all your SQL code housed in the database, then it's
    easy to tune the stored procedure without affecting the clients (unless of
    course the parameter change).
  * Modularity - during application development, the application designer can
    concentrate on the front-end and the DB designer can concentrate on the
    ASE.
  * Network latency - a client on a LAN may seem slower if it is sending large
    numbers of separate requests to a database server, bundling them into one
    procedure call may improve responsiveness. Also, servers handling large
    numbers of small requests can spend a surprising amount of CPU time
    performing network IO.
  * Minimise blocks and deadlocks - it is a lot easier to handle a deadlock if
    the entire transaction is performed in one database request, also locks
    will be held for a shorter time, improving concurrency and potentially
    reducing the number of deadlocks. Further, it is easier to ensure that all
    tables are accessed in a consistent order if code is stored centrally
    rather than dispersed among a number of apps.

Back to top

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 

- David Alex Lamb, one of the *.answers moderators
news-answers-request@mit.edu




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